\o0UAiLu , IxaxUj^ IXHvv. 




Qass. 
Book. 



,T. 



( c. 



THE ISSUE 



Lf 



PRESENTED IX A 



SERIES OF LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 



&. Ju. 



BY REV. RUFUS WM. BAILEY, 



OP SOUTH CAROLINA. 



^^ ^ ^. 




NEW-YORK : 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR, 

BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL. 



1837. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by John S. 
1 AYLOH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern Dis- 
trict of New -York. _ 



« •• <• 



«^ ' 










*, 



NEW-YORK: 

Vr. S. DORR, PRINTER, 

123 Fulton Street. 



* 

"^ ADVERTISEMENT. 



\^ 



The following Letters, originally published in tl- 
Christian Mirror, have been copied, either wholly or in 
part, into most of the religious papers of the country. 
This wide circulation has given to them already an ex- 
tensive perusal. The manner, in which they have been 
received, and the influence they have exerted, have led, 
by the advice of judicious friends, to their careful revision, 
and re-publication. They are now offered to the public 
in a small volume with the earnest hope that they may 
subserve the cause of truth, and do good to our colored 
population, by contributing to check the progress of prin- 
ciples, now industriously disseminated, most injurious, as 
the writer believes, to their cause. The book is com- 
mended to the candor of the public, and the blessing of 
God. 



t 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. p^cE. 

Answers to seven questions. Influence of the Colonization Society 
a the bouth. Action of pious people— difficulties in the way of 

fhf A "•ci^"^^'" o'""'] "^ ^^" slaves-northern aid-influence of 
the Ann-Slavery Society at the South. Southern vicMs of the 
right 01 slavery. - 

LETTER II. 

Instruction and salvation of the slaves, action of legislatures, church- 
es individuals, eccle.iast.cal bodies. Synod of South Carolina 
and Georgia. Statistics of all religious denominations. How 
the abolitionists influence the religious instruction of the slaves. 13 

LETTER III. 

"^St n?cf ^"^^^'^"-Reasoning of the abolitionists considerr d. ^ 
Right of slavery-Rev. Mr. B's. plantation-Synod of South Car- 

tted'" . .''^.'^'."^^.°^r"-""'*^^'^>^ '^^ ^h'e aboUtion doctrine 



18 



LETTER IV. 



Political aspect of the controversy-United feeling of the South- 
Exaggerated statements, production of excited feeling-Relat ons 
ZJ^'T «^ ^"^«^««"rse between master and slave much misun^ 
derstood-Sentiments of the slaves, their fidelity • . . . . : . 23 

LETTER V. 

The present excitement on this subject is injurious to truth to the 
abo it.onists themselves, to the master and the slave-The deba e 
excluded from the South, and good interrupted- T!. • ! .. ... 31 

LETTER VT. 

Slavery originally forced on the southern states:— Nature of th^ 
proposal now made to them, to rehnquish th ir property and 
Zt themselves poor-This they will not do tillToSed of 
duty-Bitter mveciive wUl not convince-A plan proposed-. • - 39 



VI CONTENTS. 

LETTER VII. Page. 

Objections answered — Negroes held as property — ^Unkind interfc 
rence — Right of slavery again — The true distinction — Law of love 
— Anti-Slavery Society of Maine, their noble resolution — Agency 
offered. • 44 * 

LETTER VIII. 

. ^ 
The issue — Ami- Slavery Societies, their origin, character, motive, ^ 
course of action — Premises defective^Liberty, a natural right, ^ ji 
defined and illustrated, tested. — Measures, pursued — The issue a ^ ^, 
division of the Union — This avowed — state of public opinion at the 
South — Resolution of Mr. Thompson, false in point of fact — 
Proved — United States Mail at Charleston — Mr. Dresser in Ten- 
nessee — End of this course. 51 

LETTER IX, 

Objections answered — Previous statement confirmed — Religious 
instruction and religious character of the slaves 65 

LETTER X. 
Same subject continued 75 

LETTER XL 

Oral instruction — its value, extensive use, and peculiar adaptation to 
the instruction of the slaves. 80 

LETTER XII. 

Grant that the slaves ought to be set free — the abolitionists pre- 
vent it. 88 

LETTER XIII. 

But there may be some good objections to immediate emancipation 
Reference to the Bible. 92 

LETTER XIV. 

Liberty of speech and of the press at the South — History of the 
slavery question connected with it. 98 

LETTER XV. 
Both sides — A supposition. 105 



LETTER I. 

South Carolina, -A-Ug. 12, 1835. 

Rev. Silas McKeen: 

Dear Brother, — The subject to which you particularly 
call my attention is no longer a "delicate subject." I am 
willing to say nothing to you in relation to it, which I 
would not desire to say to every minister, every man and 
woman in New England. The time has come when, as 
you say, " Something, by way of light and persuasion on 
the subject of slavery, must be done," — and I may add, 
not for the South alone. 

I regret that I cannot answer your very candid letter, 
before the "Convention on the subject of slavery," which, 
you say, is to be held in Portland on the 12th inst. That 
is now impossible. But I will pray the Author of all 
light to direct you, and I trust the candor expressed in 
your letter, and which I know pervades your character, 
will characterize the meeting, and that it may result in 
great good to the poor slaves, for whose benefit it is 
called. 

It appears to me that two inquiries, when you are met, 
will exhaust the subject. First, What ca?i we do ? And 
then, What ought we to do ? It is plain that you ought 
not to do what you cannot do, — probably not all even that 
you can do. You cannot interfere with the subject by le- 
gislation, at least, so far as the respective states are con- 
cerned. That is settled by the Constitution. You can, 
however, seek an amendment of the Constitution. This 
is provided for in the instrument itself. And only in that 
method prescribed for amending the Constitution, cart you 
act on the subject through the government. You cannot 

2 



8 LETTERS ON SLAVERY^ 

address the slaves themselves on the subject. To this? 
course, there are not only insurmountable moral, but 
physical objections; you would not excite rebellion if you 
could, and you would not be permitted to approach them 
with that design if disposed. Yon cannot benefit the 
slaves by violence, either in the use of physical force, or 
opprobrious epithets, or by crimination of the motives or 
conduct of their masters. You cannot give them their 
freedom, nor teach them, nor find access to them, except 
hy the voluntary consent of their masters. But you can im- 
part "light," if you have it, and use "persuasion," and 
open yourselves to the same influence — and this is what 
you ought to do. 

The questions propounded in your letter, I will answer 
briefly and in all candor. Some more full statements than 
are now at hand, I will communicate in other letters. 

"i. What is the actual influence of the American Coloni- 
:iation Society at the South, and do its warmest friends now 
think it will ever remove slavery from the land?^' I answer: 
it is not easy for me to say what the actual influence of the 
American Colonization Society is at the South, as to the 
extent of that influence. The reflecting"part of the com- 
munity, I believe, are friendly to it, as calculated to re- 
lieve this country from a portion of its most miserable 
population, the free blacks ; but principally as a means of 
introducing the Gospel into Africa, and preventing or 
diminishing the slave trade. Its ability to remove slavery 
from the land must depend on other friends of the slaves 
besides their owners. These masters cannot, if they 
would, hire themselves to give up their property. Is it 
not enough that they manumit their slaves? Has the 
black man no other friends to help him ? There are now, 
and always have been, masters who are ready to give up 
their slaves, if others will transport them. They can do 
no more. You are aware that the laws of this and many 
other states prohibit, for the best of reasons, that slaves 
should be ^et free without transportation — that is, a re- 
moval from the state. 

"2. What do pious people at the South intend to do in 
order ever to bring slavery to an end?" They intend to 
seek the moral and intellectual elevation of their slaves, 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. ^ 

and prepare them for a better world, and for whatever the 
providence of God may appoint for them here. The way 
is now dark, and they appear willing to receive "light." 
This, however, must come from some other source than 
from those who begin by calling them villains, and by as- 
serting- what the slaveholders themselves know to be false 
in point of fact. The people of the South are as ready 
as the people of the North to make sacrifices. Show them 
any course that commends itself to their judgment, and 
they are as little blinded by a selfish or avaricious spirit 
as any people on earth. 

"3. Is there any greater difficulty in the way of its aboli- 
tion than there was in the British dominions ?^^ I answer: 
that I do not kn^ow of any. But who will purchase these 
slaves ? The British government will not as they did 
those of the West India Islands. V/ili the friends of the 
negroes at the North do it ? I should be glad to see the 
experiment tried in this country, and then we should 
know where the difficulty lies. The experiment there, 
however, is but half perfected. The negroes are free. It 
remains to be proved whethBr their freedom is to be a 
blessing to them. 

" 4. What is done for the instruction and salvation of the 
colored people?'''' I answer: much is done. Some pious 
masters de\^ote themselves entirely to the religious in- 
struction of their slaves. They are generally instructed 
by the ministers. In many places the time of the clergy 
is equally divided between the whites and blacks. In 
many of our churches, the majority of communicants are 
blacks. In some sections, where they are numerous, 
missionaries are employed for their exclusive benefit. But 
I will not enlarge, as I shall take an opportunity to furnish 
you with statistics, and more minute information on this 
subject. 

"5. Is the way open for the people of the North, through 
the medium of the American Home Missionary Society, or 
in any other way, to do any thing for the religious instruc- 
tion and moral improvement of the slaves by preaching the 
Gospel to them?'' I answer: the black population are en- 
tirely accessible to religious teachers, and ministers are 
called for and generally welcomed by the owners, who 



10 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

are willing to contribute liberally to their support. Under 
the present state of excitement ministers coming directly 
from the North are, of course, looked upon with jealousy. 
No northern minister, however, who has an established 
character, is obstructed in his endeavors to instruct the 
negroes. 

"6. What infiuence do you think is exerted at the South, 
by the Anti-Slavery Societies of the North ?" " The Anti- 
Slavery Societies of the North," as I understand, com- 
prize those who, in opposition to all others, require 
ema?icipation of the slaves immediately, and at all hazards. 
They oppose gradual emancipation, and Colonization and 
all plans of amelioration with the same uncompromising 
application of their abstractions, and with the same bitter 
invective, and the same reckless disregard to consequen- 
ces, as they oppose slavery itself. I know of no good 
influence, which these societies have exerted or can exert 
here. They have undoubtedly been productive of great 
evil. No one here believes their schemes practicable. 
If literally practicable, every man knows that their execu- 
tion would be attended by the most disastrous consequen- 
ces both to master and slave. There was never, perhaps, 
greater unanimity on any subject than the whole South 
presents on this. I do not know of a single southern man 
in this State, wherever he may have be^n born, or what- 
ever his profession, who is not decidedly opposed to the 
principles of the Anti-Slavery Societies of the North. 
And the negro has as firm friends here as any where. 
There are many men at the South who have made them- 
selves poor for the benefit of the slaves — who have "cast 
in all that they had." Who at the North has done this ? 
Here are men who have relinquished fortunes of twenty, 
thirty, fifty, and one hundred thousand dollars for the sake 
of giving liberty to the enslaved. Who at the North has 
done so much ? Many more are ready to do it so soon 
as they can be convinced it will bring a real blessing on 
their slaves. What abolitionist has done so much ? Not 
the North alone is liberal in this matter. The South is 
liberal. Let the course of duty be known, and dollars 
and cents will have little influence to obstruct or aid the 
execution of this duty. But let me say, the principles of 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. li 

the abolitionists, can never prevail here. They will be 
opposed at the threshold. That interposition will never 
be permitted — tha4; emancipation cannot now be effected. 
Blood may flow — ^but the fetters of the slave will be riveted 
the stronger. The country may be deluged in blood, but 
it will only serve to perpetuate slavery. This is the "in« 
fluence exerted at the South by the Anti-Slavery societies 
of the North." So far as the negro is concerned, these 
societies could do nothing worse for him, were they his 
worst enemies. This is the sentiment of the best friends 
of the slaves, and especially of those who are most anxious 
for a policy, which shall result in final emancipation- 
Northern men at the South too are unanimous on this sub- 
ject. The political i?iflucnce of this great moral question, 
I will remark upon in a future letter. And lest the mo- 
tives under which I write, should be mistaken, let me 
say — that, although now in the midst of a slave popula- 
tion, I can be influenced by no regard to the opinions of 
those about me. I do not intend to continue my residence 
in a slave country. But my views of the right of slavery 
form a different subject from the question, What is now 
our duty in regard to the slaves of our country ! That dis- 
tinction I will endeavor hereafter to consider. 

" 7. Do Christian people, if there are any, who hold slaves, 
think it is right ? And that it would be right, if in comirig 
years, the scale should be turned, and the colored people 
should enslave the descendants of their present masters, and 
treat them just as they are now treated?^'' You know, my 
dear brother, that Christians at the South hold slaves, 
do you not? You did not, therefore, intend to imply that 
tlie piety of a slaveholder must be doubtful. There are 
those, who cast such imputations — who indeed can hardly 
cast any thing else. But I will not presume you designed 
it, because the language you use does not necessarily re- 
quire that construction. Nothing is gained by such im- 
putations. Much, now not to be recovered, has already 
been lost. Most Christians, in answering this question, 
would require a distinction to be made between the right 
of slavery in the abstract, and the "right" as applied to 
the circumstances in which they are placed, and would 
answer the question differently in the two cases. But as 

2* 



12 LETTERS 0?f SLAVERY. 

a more full answer to this question will come into con- 
nection with a branch of the subject I have reserved for 
another letter, I will not introduce it in this, already too 
extended. The second branch of the question will then 
also, naturally, come under consideration. In the mean- 
time permit me, dear brother, in the love of my country 
as an American citizen, and the love of the church as 
imposing the strongest obligation on us all, to subscribe 
myself in every latitude your attached brother. 



LETTER II. 

South CaroU7ia, Aug. 15, 1832. 
Rev. Silas McKeen : 

Dear Brother,— In reply to your question, " What is 
done for the instruction and salvation of the colored peo- 
ple ?"— I have already said something ; and now propose 
to add such facts as lie directly within my reach. 

Within a few years, increased efibrts have been made 
by Christian masters, and by ministers, to impart reli- 
gious instruction to the slave population, and brmg them 
under a moral influence. Great efforts have been made 
by the legislature, by enacting severe penalties to prevent 
irregular trading with them by unprincipled white persons, 
in which they were always under temptations to steal 
articles for traffic, and purchase in return intoxicating 
liquors. The vice of intemperance has been, by this and 
other means, greatly diminished among them. The Sab- 
bath is very generally regarded as a day of rest, if not of 
devotion. I have rarely, for several years, seen it made 
by them a day of amusement, as I am told it formerly was. 
Great and increasing care is used by masters to remove 
the most common sources of temptation, to provide for 
them good and separate sleeping apartments, to promote 
and encourage the marriage relation, and give a due re- 
spect to families by special indulgences and privileges. 
Provision is generally made in the construction of churches 
to accommodate them in separate seats, and in some 
places churches are fitted up especially for their separate 
use. Sabbath school and family instruction is extended 
to them extensively by religious families ; and, as a mis- 
sionary field, the black population of our plantations is at- 



14 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

trading the attention, and enlisting the voluntary services 
of all who can feel the missionary spirit, or be warmed 
into action by the love of souls. 

So much is true in regard to the individual and separate 
efforts of Christians to promote the spiritual interests of 
their slaves. In most of the ecclesiastical bodies of the 
several religious denominations, the same spirit is mani- 
fested. 

The Synod of South Carolina and Georgia have made 
the religious condition of our slave population a subject 
of special consideration for several years. In regard to 
the spirit which prevails in this Synod, I will state a fact, 
as the best illustration I can give. An intelligent gentle- 
man from the North, who attended on the Sessions of our 
last meetings and heard the discussions on this subject, 
declared to me that he was entirely satisfied, and that 
meeting had done much to mitigate and destroy the strong 
prejudices against southern slavery, with which he had just 
come into the country. This remark referred, of course, 
to slavery as it ?ioiu exists at the South. Nor does our 
action end in eloquent speeches. Resolutions have an- 
nually been passed expressive of the obligations of min- 
isters, churches, and masters, to extend the means of 
grace among the slaves, both designed and calculated to 
excite the members of our communion to diligence in 
their duty. Nor is this all. These principles have been 
followed out, and great and increasing efforts have been 
made in behalf of the African race among us. Our clergy 
generally pay a particular attention to their black congre- 
gations. Many of them give the entire afternoon of the 
Sabbath to them. Sunday schools among them are al- 
most universally organized. Several of our most talented 
and most promising young ministers are devoting their en- 
tire services to the blacks, and, to do this, have declined 
calls to some of the most distinguished stations in our 
Church. 

Our Synod, at its last meeting, appointed a committee 
to " take into consideration the propriety and expediency 
of forming a Society for the religious instruction of the 
colored population." This was done at that time in con- 
sequence of a proposal from the Synods of Virginia 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 15 

and North Carolina to form a Southern Society for this 
purpose, called "The Southern Evangelical Society." 
This committee have prosecuted the duties of their ap- 
pointment with great zeal and faithfulness, and will be 
prepared to report at our next meeting at Columbia in 
November.* Measures will then no doubt be taken, 
which may be, on due deliberation, thought best calcu- 
lated, subject to the laws of the land, to promote the re- 
ligious character and salvation of the slaves. 

A reference to the religious statistics of the principal 
denominations will furnish further evidence of the degree 
of attention paid to the instruction of the slave population. 
The Methodists are perhaps better organized and more 
efficient in this service than either of the other denomi- 
nations. They have eight missionaaies entirely devoted to 
the black population, and their preachers are very suc- 
cessfully as well as actively devoted to this part of their 
charge throughout their respective circuits. Their Church 
embraces, in this State 30,000 members, of whom about 
20,000 are blacks. 

The Episcopal Church has 2500 members, of whom 600 
are blacks. 

The Baptist Church has 36,000, of whom, according to 
the best estimate that can be made, about 20,000 are blacks. 

The Presbyterian Church has about 8000 members, of 
whom, in the entire absence of separate reports, I reckon 
3000 blacks. 

The Reformed Presbyterians have 50 communicants — 
the Associate Reformed 2155 — the Associate 140, making 
in the aggregate 2345 ; of these I suppose at least 345 
may be blacks. 

The Lutheran Church number nearly 2000 communi- 
cants, including several hundred blacks. 

A few other fragments of other denominations may add 
1000 to the number of Protestant professing Christians in 
this state, making in the aggregate nearly 88,000 com- 
municants in the whole population. Multiply this by 6, 

♦ This committee made their report, which, on account of the public 
excitement then existing, was laid on the table, and the whole subject 
has slept to the present time. This is one effect of the abolition move- 
ments. 



16 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

and you will have 528,000, very nearly the present pop* 
ulation of the state. 

If you now subtract 51,000 from 315,000 the last cen- 
sus of the slave population, for the immense emigrations 
to the West during the last six years, you will have a 
slave population of 264,000, numerically equal* to the 
whites, and with 45,000 black communicants you will 
have a larger proportion of black than of white communi- 
cants. 8 or 10,000 free blacks, I have not brought into 
this estimate, as there is among them but a single profes- 
sor of religion within my personal knowledge ; and I am 
assured also, there are very few in the knowledge of 
others. 

More particulars might be added of a similar character ; 
but here is an outline, a correct one I believe, of the 
means now used in this state for the "instruction and 
salvation of the colored population " I have confined my 
remarks to South Carolina, that I might more closely tes- 
tify to what I know. I haA'-e no doubt that a still more 
favorable statement might be made for Virginia, and per- 
haps for North Carolina and Georgia. I might also dwell 
on a very different picture by speaking of the religious des- 
titutions, and vite and misery of the slave population, the 
picture on which we are accustomed to dwell at our pub- 
lic meetings, when attempting to look at our duty, and ex- 
cite to redoubled exertions. But I suppose you have had 
a faithful representation of every thing that can be said 
on that side. I know it will be cheering to your heart to 
dwell on a verdant spot of moral vegetation in a field 
so little cultivated and known. 

And now, dear sir, where is the man, who can come 
into this enclosure, and pronounce the curse of God upon 
it ? Who can rudely tear down the wall, by which this 
field is protected, and desolate these little gardens, now 
green with moral vegetation, fragrant with the flowers of 

* This is the best estimate I can make after consulting with some 
whose ju'lornient may be considered entitled to the most re?pect. The 
census of 1830 statps the whole population in round numbers at 581,000. 
Whites 258,000-s!avcs 315,000— free colored 8000 But the s'rong tide 
of emisration which has been selling westward, for the last five or six 
years, has greatly diminished the population of this state — particularly 
of the slaves. 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 17 

paradise, and bringing forth fruit unto eternal life ? Who 
would turn this cultivated soil into the wilderness? The 
abolitionist, if he succeeds, does this. 1 regard not now 
his motives or his principles — he does this. I can admit 
no reply to this position, that he will proceed to instruct 
them as free men instead of slaves. I say still, he does 
this. He turns an enclosed field into the wilderness. 
He cannot instruct them with success. He may send the 
first generation to perdition, and go into the laborious pro- 
cess, employed among other heathen, of educating their 
children to feel a religious influence. But he loses his 
hold on one generation. I appeal to facts. Our free 
black population, your own free black population, are proof. 
Can we not do better for them? Is it not our duty to do 
somethino[ better for them .'' 

I love to dwell on the religious privileges and prospects 
of our black population, in contrast with their brethren, 
who remain free in their native deserts. I love to con- 
template the wisdom and benevolence of that Providence, 
which has permitted them to be enslaved that they may 
become free indeed. I dwell with increasing interest on 
the prospect, which connects Africa with the fulfilment 
of her Divine promise, through the converted slaves of 
this country, transplanted to their original soil wholly a 
good seed. Africa shall be compensated for her wrongs, 
and repaid an hundred fold. Mothers have bewailed their 
sons torn by violence from their embrace, and subjectted 
to slavery — but when these mothers have gone to the ac- 
count of those, who have "sinned without law," and the 
inhuman slave dealer to the account of those, who have 
" sinned in the law," these sons shall return again to their 
native shores, free and "white in the robes of the Lamb," 
to proclaim liberty to Africa groaning under a sorer bon- 
dage, hailing Christian America under God, "^Ae Deliv- 
erer OF OUR RACE." While I greatly fear that Great 
Britian, in a noble endeavor to act nobly, has precipitated 
her colonial slaves to a deeper ruin, I would ask for my- 
self and for my country, such a distinction in the annals 
of Africa as I have just recorded. 



LETTER III 



South Carolina, Avg. 18, 1835. 
Rev. Silas McKeen : 

Dear Brother, — You ask : " Do Christian people, if 
there are any, who hold slaves, think it is right? And that 
it would be right, if, in coming years, the scale should he turn- 
ed and the colored people should enslave the descendants of 
their present masters and treat them just as they are now 
treated /"' 

This question is intended as a pinch. The enslave- 
ment of their descendants is not a contingency contem- 
plated by the people of the South. The answer, how- 
ever, to the last part of this question, if answered at all, 
would be consistent with their present practice, I say in 
candor, that on the supposition that my descendants should 
be placed in precisely the condition of the slaves in this 
country my prayer would be that they might be spared the 
false friendship of a generation of abolitionists. My 
principles as expressed, I should desire to have applied 
to myself, to my descendants, in a change of circumstances. 
You do not understand me as justifying the manner in 
which the slaves are " now treated" by bad masters and 
bad men, nor do I suppose that you expected to have the 
question answered by such men. You seek an answer 
from reflecting men ; from Christian men ; and in this 
view I have given you a reply. Believe me, Christian 
masters seek to act conscientiously in this matter ; they 
apply the law of love in retaining their slaves in bondage, 
and good men here are the very last men, who will prac- 
tically be influenced by the abolition principles. This 
may appear a marvellous doctrine to some, but it will be 
strictly verified in the extremity of the experiment. 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 19 

All the reasoning of abolitionists, whose motives I would 
by no means impugn, and whose benevolence is worthy 
of sounder argument — all their reasoning whiclj has fal- 
len under my particular observation, seems to be briefly 
this, " Slavery is a sin. The only proper treatment of 
sin is to leave ofl" sinning, entirely, of every kind and de- 
gree, at once and forever. Therefore, immediate emanci- 
pation is the duty of all who hold slaves." This argument 
is as fallacious as it is specious. Let it be examined by 
your child. He has caught an animal of the forest, and 
for his mere selfish gratification has confined it in a cage, 
deprived of the free air and liberty of its native mountains 
and plains. You teach him from the morality of the 
Emancipator or New- York Evangelist. It is a sin, my 
child to deprive this simple animal of its native freedom 
for your own personal gratification. Therefore, you must 
go straight and open the door of its cage and let him out 
to be devoured by the dogs. Would not the boy confound 
you by the morality of his own little Sunday School 
books ? Would he not say : — " Your premises are right. 
It is wrong to deprive even the meanest animal of liberty 
and happiness, for which, in his measure, the God of na- 
ture has fitted him — but it would be more wicked still to let 
him loose among the dogs, where a greater evil must be- 
fall him, and double injustice be done. I can do much 
better for him. I will return him to his native woods 
and restore him safely to his range of freedom." Try the 
argument by your own views of justice and personal con- 
venience. Your horse has been stolen. The hor§e has 
been off'ered for sale, and I have bought him and paid my 
money. I have put him to my own service — your horse 
to my service. Convinced at length the horse is yours, 
I open my gate and turn him out into the high way to stray 
still farther from his rightful owner, or to be taken up 
a^ain and sold. I cannot keep a stolen horse a minute. 
Would you think I did " right ?" No. 

Now you ask me — " do good people who hold slaves 
think it is right V I answer : I believe slavery, in the 
abstract, or the subjection of freemen to a state of bond- 
age is regarded by Christian people to be wrong. But 
they do not believe that immediate emancipation of their 

3 



20 LETTERS ON SLAVER^* 

staves would be " right.''^ And, therefore, under the cir- 
cumstances, they do think it is " righV for them to hold 
slaves. They believe it would be doing the slave great 
injustice to abandon him so. They think they can do 
much better for him, that they owe him something, and I 
believe that pious people at the South are disposed to re- 
store to the slave " four fold" for all the injustice that has 
been done to him. 

Let me introduce you to the plantation of my friend, the 
Rev. Mr. B. He is a Presbyterian clergyman, and has 
several hundred slaves, and is entirely devoted to their 
religious instruction. They form his congregation. He 
regulates them by wholesome laws and considers them all 
as members of his family. They are required to work 
regularly, but not hard. He requires of them, perhaps, 
one third the labor which a New England farmer com- 
monly demands of his son, and this is a very fair gradua- 
tion of the amount of the slave labor generally at the South. 
They assemble at an early hour in the evening in the 
chapel, where they receive daily religious instruction. If 
difficulties have occurred on the plantation during the day, 
or wrongs been committed, they are all settled here. A 
public reprimand in the chapel is commonly regarded as 
the most dreaded punishment which can be inflicted. On 
the Sabbath, they form his congregation of hearers, and 
attend on Sunday school instructions. They are provided 
with every comfort of life, and made as happy in this 
world's goods as they are capable of being. Their houses 
arc good, their food suitable and abundant, and the plan- 
tation, with all its goods, is theirs so far as it can contri- 
bute to their wants. When the master sells his crop, he 
purchases a new suit of clothes for each of his slaves of 
the same material with his own, and they all appear in 
the chapel clad in similar fabric. They are contented 
and happy, in the way of improvement, and many of them, 
in the way, it is believed, of eternal life. They all enjoy 
the means of grace as eminently as the families of Port- 
land or Belfast. Compare this family of slaves with the 
free negroes of your own state. Would not that free- 
dom, under all circumstances, be a curse to them? Sup- 
pose he should off hands where they are, and say he will 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 21 

be rid of the " sin of slavery." Would not that be a curse 
to them ? What shall he do with them ? Now this good 
and devoted brother is a man who '*1;hinks it '• righf'' for 
him to hold his slaves. He thinks he can do better for 
them than to give them their freedom, which they proba* 
bly would not accept unless compelled to do it. He thinks 
he would be doing them great injustice to place them in 
the situation of the free negroes of the North or the South. 
He could not answer a good conscience by doing it. He 
could not answer to God for those souls over which, in a 
wise but mysterious providence, he has been made the 
overseer. He hopes to meet many of this large family in 
heaven, saved by his instrumentality from those vices, and 
fatal consequences, to which their emancipation v/ould in- 
evitably expose them. This is by no means a singidar 
43ase, nor are all the interesting facts in this case related. 
The unanimous opinion of the Presbyterian clergy of 
South Carolinia and Georgia, respecting the Anti-Slavery 
Societies of the North is expressed in the following reso- 
lution adopted at the last meeting of Synod in December. 
^' Resolved unanimously, That in the opinion of this Synod, 
Abolition Societies, and the principl&s on which they are 
formed in the United States, are inconsistent with the 
best interest of the slaves, the rights of the holders, and 
the great principles of our political institutions." This 
resolution was adopted while the Synod were engaged in 
maturing an extensive plan, of which 1 will speak again, 
for the instruction and relief of the slave population. 
The " principles of these societies are deemed incon- 
sistent with the best interests of the slave," as they retard 
efforts in other ways for his instruction, amelioration or 
eventual freedom ; with " the rights of the holders," be- 
cause their slaves are their property. This is recognized 
by our Constitution, and was recognized as a " right" of 
the master in the legislation of the British government on 
the subject of emancipation in their colonies. " Incon- 
sistent with the great principles of our political institu- 
tions," — because the great charter of our rights protects 
the citizens, under it, in their property, and recognizes 
this species of property in particular. However just. 



22 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

therefore, their object may be, the coui'se they propose is 
one of injustice. 

Suppose, on the faith of the government to redeem 
the bills of the United States' Bank, the citizens of the 
southern states should permit the other states to press 
the vi^hole circulation of them into these states. Would 
it he just, then, for the other states to come forward and 
pass a law pronouncing those notes unredeemable and 
worthless ? But this would be equally just with the course 
demanded by the principles of the Abolition Societies. 
Would you say the faith of the government is pledged in 
this case 1 So it is in the other. You must overleap a 
constitutional barrier before you can press an argument. 

The abolitionist says, oiu* constitution was " conceived 
in sin." We had no right to make a contract to protect 
tiie siavenolaef, tlisrcforc, the contract itself is null and 
void, and the sooner it is torn up and trampled on, the bet- 
ter for truth and justice. Just so the ruling party says, 
" the United States' Bank is unconstitutional," and the act 
of incorporation void, and its existence a sin. " The 
only way to treat sin is to leave it off." Thus you see 
the Constitution, our glorious Constitution, which 
was built up as a wall to protect essential rights against 
arbitrary majorities, popular gnsts, and raging fanaticism, 
is levelled at a blow. The reasoning cannot be admitted. 
The fanaticism must be checked. 



LETTER lY, 

South Carolina, Aug. 20. 1836. 

Rev. Silas McKeen : 

Dear Brother, — Slavery, in the attitude it has been 
made to assume, is in my opinion, decidedly more impor- 
tant, (as it will be made to subserve the purpose of party, 
and effect the stability of our government, and the perma- 
nent interests of this nation,) than any other subject now 
agitated. It is important, because it enlists ihe feelings 
of the whole country, strikes deeply in those sectional 
prejudices, which have most seriously threatened the 
perpetuity of our Federal Union, can most easily be made 
to serve some dreaded political purposes, and it is now 
agitated by the northern abolitionists in such a manner 
as to furnish, to all who may desire a political effect, an 
engine of prodigious power most easily put in operation. 
So long as it was considered a great moral question, its 
discussion was comparatively restricted and attended with 
calmness, but when it is made a national question, and 
organized opposition to slavery in the South is formed in 
the states that have nothing to do with it, the political 
elements are disturbed and new passions are enlisted. 

The Colonization Society has undoubtedly exerted a 
powerful influence in favor of the slave. It has awaken- 
ed the minds of southern men to the subject of slavery, to 
its moral and political bearings on the interests of the 
South, its necessary results in an undisturbed progress 
for centuries, the necessity of limiting the increasing ratio 
of slave population, and of seeking moral safeguards by 
the moral elevation of the negro race as the physical dan- 
gers increase. The rights of the slave as such, and the 

3* 



24 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

right of slavery itself in the abstract, have undoubtedly 
been examined, better understood, and more extensively 
respected than formerly. The change, which has taken 
place within eight years, since my residence at the South, 
is surprising. The reformation has been going on with 
increasing rapidity and power, and few moral fields have 
presented to the eye of the philanthropist and Christian a 
view more cheering and hopeful than that which embraced 
the slavery of the South. There was an agency seen to 
operate with force and effect, and the moral vegetation 
was obvious and vigorous. Such was the decided, in- 
creasing, steady and healthful influence of the inquiry 
awakened, and action produced at the South by the Amer- 
ican Colonization Society. If jealousies were awakened 
in some minds as to the ultimate tendency or design of the 
society to effect the final emanci])ation of the slaves, it 
was enough that its operation did not aflect the rights of 
the master ; and with many the idea of eventual emanci- 
pation was willingly entertained, provided it could be done 
without invading the rights of personal property, or by 
violent measures. 

Nothing could be more pleasant than to contemplate the 
benevolent operations of a wise providence in bringing 
from their native deserts, barbarous habits, and lawless 
modes of life, and subjecting to the influence of a civil- 
ized and Christian community, two millions of these igno- 
rant benighted heathens. I have remarked with gratitude 
and lively hope the minds of the masters gradually open- 
ing to the light, and their hearts warmed up to a glowing 
conviction of their moral obligations to the slave. The 
evils of slavery, in all respects, have been gradually and 
rapidly diminishing, tyranny and oppression of the power- 
ful over the weak exchanged for a paternal care, the 
slaves admitted to a place in the regard and attentions of 
the master as members of his family, and the whole sys- 
tem of moral means brought to bear directly on this por- 
tion of the population. Here was opened a missionary 
field, wide, accessible, and most promising. The slave 
regards the attention of a minister of religion as a favor. 
It is a privilege to him to be called from the field for re- 
hgious conversation and instruction, to sit with the chil- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 23 

dren at family worship, and to assemble with the great 
congregation on the Sabbath ; and there is at the present 
time no part of his labors more grateful and animating to a 
clergyman of the South than that, which lies connected 
with his black congregation. 

It is under such circumstances and prospects that the 
Anti-Slavery Abolition Societies have urged their officious 
and importunate and unwelcome instructions. The most 
unhappy and disastrous is the political aspect they have 
given to the question. If what has been sometimes 
charged on some of the leading politicians of the South 
as a crime be true, that they have sought in their course 
of complaint against the general government simply a dis- 
solution of the Union, and the erection of a southern con- 
federacy, these societies have done more to aid them in their 
object, and to sanctify their crime, than the tyranny of any 
government could have effected in half a century. The 
Anti-Slavery Society annihilates, so far as this subject is 
concerned, the union party, and gives to McDuffie the en- 
tire disposal of every man in South Carolina capable of 
bearing arms. I know not how numerous or powerful 
that society may now be, or prove to be, hereafter — but 
one thing is beyond all doubt, that it will never be per- 
mitted, by the South, to carryforward its objects. It will 
be met in any attempt to carry out its principles, on the 
boundary line of the slaveholding states, and the border 
country of new national demarcations will be there traced 
in blood. This is the influence at the South of the Anti- 
Slavery iVbolition Societies of the North. Whether we 
regard them in their influence on the slave or the master, 
on the political or moral interests of the community, they 
are productive of evil, of unmixed evil. 

We are not so constituted, and it is well we are not, 
as to affect the great revolutions, by a word, which it is 
made our duty and privilege to accomplish by moral agen- 
cies. It is often the case too, that more patient and per- 
severing eflbrt is necessary to enable us to make the truth 
clear to the dull heads of others, than the investigation and 
attainment of that truth cost ourselves. Yet it is well we 
cannot command fire from heaven to destroy those, Avhom 
we would fain make as wise as ourselves ; for if we could 



26 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

we might often play the tyrant too effectually in punishing 
tyranny, and establish the very principle we attempt to 
overthrow. Besides, in the persevering routine of patient 
effort for gradual improvement, most men find their own 
views sometimes so far changed or modified as leads 
them to avoid a ruin, which their favorite immediateism 
would have made cotemporary with the accomplishment 
of their wishes. And is it by no means possible to con- 
vince our brethren of the Abolition Societies that gradual 
emancipation is more safe both to the master and the slave, 
and is the best to be attempted, because, if either, that alone 
is jyracticahle ? If not, they must try their experiment, 
and meet the shock. I trust they will be few in number, 
that THE NATION may not be involved in the conse- 
quences. 

Much exasperation of feeling with the good people of 
the North exists on the subject of slavery in consequence 
of distorted and exaggerated apprehensions of the actual 
evils of it in our own country. It is often said, however, 
that if this be so, it does not aftect the main question ; 
the right of slavery. True, but it does and must materi- 
ally affect the influence which those, who are free from 
the evil, may attempt to exert on those, who patronize or 
suffer under it. It does deeply affect the friendly rela- 
tions of the North and the South, integral parts of our 
common country, between whom the utmost harmony and 
fraternal sympathy should be cherished. And ultimately, 
if not directly, it must deeply aftect the whole question in 
all our practical action on it. If you wish to gain a sinner 
and convert him from the error of his ways, you do not 
begin by knocking him down, and calling him a knave or 
a fool. This course would efl'ectually bar any moral in- 
fluence you might attempt afterwards to exert upon him. 
You go to him " more in sorrow than in anger," and you 
" meekly instruct those that oppose themselves." For 
" the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle 
unto all men, apt to teach, patient." 

While the argvmient is thus lost on those whose refor- 
mation is sought, it is rendered unprofitable to all whose 
prejudices can be influenced on the subject. For effect, 
slavery is represented in connection with the horrors of 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 2? 

the prisonship, with manstealing, witli the disruption of 
domestic ties, exile and expatriation, with the cries of 
mothers torn from their children, and children from their 
parents, husbands from their wives and wives from their 
husbands. It is eternally associated with the clanking of 
chains, the whip, the dungeon, with tyranny, oppression, 
cruelty, and the absence of every human sympathy and 
fellow feeling. Fired with such imaginations, the north- 
ern abolitionist readily swears eternal hatred to the South, 
and here is the influence which that father is exerting on 
the political destinies of his country, soon to be consum- 
mated. He puts the slaveholder in an attitude of defence 
stung by a sense of injury, and enlists all who can be in- 
fluenced by his pictures in a crusade against him. So far 
as South Carolina and the neighboring southern states 
are concerned, his representations are false. The slave 
trade is here prohibited under severe penalties. It is 
against law to bring a slave into the state from any quar- 
ter for sale. And the ill taught youth, who comes to 
witness monsters, is surprised to see in slavery, as it ex* 
ists in this state, one form of service, which places these 
slaves above the laboring classes of Europe, and in some 
respects above the ordinary poor of our northern states, 
I would not here be misunderstood. My simple object is to 
do justice to the subject, to all parties ; to disabuse those 
who have suffered wrongfully, and to abuse no one. I 
speak not of actual slavery as it existed in the West In- 
dies up to the hour of its extinction ; nor of slavery as it 
may have existed in this country before I had the means 
of personal knowledge ; nor of slavery as it may, for 
ought I know, exist even now in some parts of Louisiana 
and Mississippi ; nor even as it may be abused in indi- 
vidual cases any where : — but I speak of slavery as it 
exists in Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, 
and especially under my own observation. Its actual 
evils do not compare with the common representations 
given of them, and are constantly diminishing. I hope 
to see them utterly exterminated. Therefore, I thus 
speak. But I wish to see justice done to the slaves even 
in their emancipation, if that should ever be effected. 



28 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

Having suffered in bondage, I would not precipitate him 
into a greater evil by a premature emancipation. 

The relations which exist and terms of intercourse 
cherished between the master and slave at the South, 
are very much misapprehended by many at the North. 
The personal attachments are generally very strong. 
Since the importation of slaves has been prohibited by 
law, the slaves of a plantation grow up with their young 
master, and associate with him in childhood and youth 
on the most familiar terms. True the distinctions of su- 
periority and inferiority are always kept up, but the 
mutual attachment, which this sort of intercourse pro- 
duces, can readily be imagined It is all real, and hence 
the line of distinction between the blacks and whites is, 
in most respects, much broader at the North than at the 
South. The familiarity of their intercourse is much less 
there than here. This familiarity and personal attach- 
ment produces a mutual devotedness, which very often 
constitutes the slave a protection, instead of a source of 
personal danger, as is often supposed, to his master. A 
northern lady can harldly credit, what is nevertheless 
true, that a southern lady often reposes entire confidence 
in the protection of her slaves, and is without the least 
apprehension although left on a remote plantation by her 
husband and every other white person, while she has her 
own slaves about her. And the confidence is not mis- 
placed. They form as safe a guard as the same number 
of persons selected from any class. This attachment of 
slaves to their masters is shown in the fact that no pre- 
concerted plan for insurrection has ever succeeded before 
it has been divulged by some faithful slave to his master. 

Intelligent slaves understand this subject perfectly well. 
They see the difference between themselves and the free 
blacks, and are conscious of their own superiority. They 
understand and acknowledge that in divine providence 
the African race in this country have been compensated 
an hundred fold for the injury done to them by the inhu- 
man slave dealer. Daily praise is rendered to God for 
the providence which made them slaves in a Christian 
land. This does by no means cancel the sins of those 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 29 

who have wronged them, but it does bring a proof that 
their present condition is one of comfort and grateful ac- 
knowledgement. 

The security to the slave, that he will be treated with 
kindness and protection, thus founded in mutual attach- 
ment between him and his master, is the best he can have. 
Where this mutual attachment does not exist, as is not 
possible to obtain in all instances where changes are so 
frequent, the slave is still protected in his rights by public 
opinion, which most effectually punishes in execration by 
common consent, the man who abuses his slave. There 
is a high standard of public feeling on this subject, better 
than all legal enactments in the case, to protect the weak 
against the strong. The man, who will brutally abuse 
his slave, is held in a similar abhorrence with him, who 
will abuse his child or his wife. Southern men are always 
considered the best masters. If a slave is to be sold, 
he will select a southern man, and this selection is to a 
great extent awarded to him. The last man he will 
choose for a master is a yankee. Northern men uniformly 
are the severest masters. The reason probably is, that 
they are used to being subject to rules, and are strict to 
apply them. They are accustomed to work hard and re- 
quire it of others. 

Many affecting anecdotes of fidelity in slaves could be 
recited, which would compare with those that have im- 
mortalized, on the historic page, names more honorably 
allied. And on the other hand, many examples of cruelty 
in masters could be furnished, which would lead us to de- 
sire the abolition of a state of society, which could admit 
of such barbarities. But neither of these recitals would 
materially affect the state of the question. They may be 
gathered from every state of society. They are incident 
to man wherever he may be found, and if they are made 
to prove any thing, they will prove in the adverse exam- 
ples that man ought not to exist at all. When we com- 
pare the state of the slaves in this country with what they 
might be, and are capable of being, we are affected to 
deep sympathy, and a strong desire to contribute to their 
intellectual and moral elevation. When we compare their 
condition with that of the free blacks of our own country, 



30 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

or with what it would have been had they kept their free- 
dom in their own native deserts and heathenism, we have 
occasion as they do, to admire the goodness and grace of 
God, which brings good out of evil, and often " makes the 
wrath of man to praise Him." 

It is easy to conjure up unreal pictures of distress on 
the one hand, or shut our eyes to visible cruelties on the 
other, and thus forever lose the truth on this subject. 
What we want is facts, and no course of action, which is 
not regulated by them, will lead us to favorable results. 
We can never expect to approach or influence the hu- 
mane master by accusing him of crimes of which he 
knows he is innocent, or by magnifying the evils of that pe- 
culiar relation, in which he finds himself placed by divine 
providence. Very little difference exists in their views of 
slavery, between pious people at the North and the South. 
The evil is felt here and acknowledged. No proof on 
that point is required. All, therefore, which is said op- 
probriously, with exaggeration, or falsely, is more than 
lost. It rivets the fetters of the slave, and prolongs his 
servitude. With a distinct knovv^ledge of this fact, v/hat 
apology can be made for the conductors of those inflam- 
matory prints, who are constantly employed in drawing 
caricatures of the evils and guilt of slavery, or in ap- 
plying real pictures to the present state of slavery at the 
South, which belong only to other times or countries. 
They aim a blow at the master, but it reaches the slave, 
and subverts entirely their professed design. Are they 
the disguised enemies of the slaves, or do they not be- 
lieve in these results of their efforts ? 



LETTER V. 

South Carolinaj Aug. 21, 1835, 

Rev. Silas McKeen : 

Dear Brother, — The present excitement on the sub- 
ject of slavery is unhappy and injurious to truth, in all 
respects. It is injurious in its influence on the minds of 
those ■philanthropists, who are actuated by a desire either 
real or false — real I admit, false many here believe — to 
benefit a degraded portion of their fellow men. Fervid 
piety, and fervid devotion to the cause of humanity, are 
always, when judiciously directed, productive of unmixed 
good. But fanaticism, though the effervescence of the 
best ingredients, must soon expend its factitious motive 
powers, and become neutral and stale ; or boil to bursting, 
spreading devastation and death. Ill directed zeal is often 
no less fatal in its results ; — efficient indeed, but subver- 
sive in its objects, and, therefore, often productive of a 
ruinous reaction on the minds, that are moved by it. By 
the people of the South, generally, the present excitement, 
as it is developed in the action of our abolition brethren, 
is attributed to fanaticism, unmixed with any intelligent prin- 
ciple of patriotism, or religion. / ascribe it to an ill di- 
rected zeal, in men of the purest patriotism and piety. I 
know Arthur Tap-pan, and I do not hesitate to assert my 
entire confidence in him here, where it is not popular to 
call him a good man. I have entire confidence in his dis- 
interested motives and ingenuousness, and I look confi- 
dently to them in a firm belief that they will compel him 
to retrace his steps, when he sees what he has done. 
Nothing but a mad perseverence in his mistaken course 
can, or ought to, forfeit to him that confidence. I may 

4 



32 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

say the same of Rev. Dr. Cox, Dr. Beman, and Beriafe 
Green, and many others of a devoted and picHis zeaL 

There are I have no doubt, bellows blov/ers in this 
work of designed benevolence, who are reckless of con- 
sequences ; who are willing to scatter firebrands, arrows 
and death ; who are entirely willing to forge instruments 
of slaughter for the hand of the slave, while they knock 
off the fetters from his limbs ; who are entirely willing t& 
influence his passions, and engage him in the work, more 
revolting to every natural feeling of sympathy than the 
worst evils of slavery, which exists only in the false pic- 
tures of their fevered imaginations. No charity can cor- 
rect this conclusion. There are such men. But they are 
not, as is too generally supposed here, they are not the 
men whom I have named. They are men, however, 
who, but for them, and others like them would exert no- 
dangerous influence and would not be tolerated. There 
are men, who have nothing in their souls, to which you 
can appeal ; for they know not what belongs to courtesy 
or propriety. They have nothing in the structure of their 
minds, to which you can direct an argument ; for their 
philanthropy is supported only by feeling, their arguments- 
are drawn from their passions. I dislike to call names in 
such a connection, although I might do it with truth and' 
justice. From such names, the honored men, whom I 
have mentioned, owe it to themselves and their families, 
as vreW as to their country and the church to withdraw 
their countenance and support. They are called upon to 
do it, when their country and religion are bleeding, and 
implore them to pause and reflect. They owe it to them- 
selves ; for a persistence in their course, though com- 
menced in piety and wisdom, is obstinacy, is madness, is 
sin, when that course of action is proven to be subversive 
of those interests it was designed to assert. 

The effect of this excitement, on the minds of the 
very authors and supporters of it, is most injurious : for 
they are strongly tempted to drive at their object, literally 
kept in view, while all the principles in the case have 
changed relation by circumstances. They commenced 
with the desire to save the slave from the lash, but they 
are making that slave doubly a slave, and subjecting th© 



\ 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 33 

master to the greatest evils. When this is proved, will 
they not desist ? Will they not relent ? If they perse- 
vere, does not their philanthropy lose its character, and 
change to misanthropy ? And will not this excitement 
then produce the most mihappy effects on the minds of 
its abettors themselves ? But there are some, whom I 
have named, and many v/hom I might name, who will not 
persist in their course. And they will not because the 
cause of benevolence, which " girded them to the war," re- 
quires them to "put off the harness." If these men 
-who have already made so many sacrifices for the cause 
of benevolence, are worthy of the confidence I have ex- 
pressed, and which I feel, they will recede from the posi- 
tion they have assumed as untenable, and subversive o£ 
their objects. 

The influence of this excitement is most unhappy and 
injurious also on the minds and interests of those, who 
are the objects of it, both' masters and slaves. The ex- 
citement, which awakens from lethargy, may subserve 
t"he interests of truth, because it is necessary to a practical 
action, — but the moment it inflames to passion, reason is 
obscured, argument is at an end, and truth suffers. This 
is precisely the present state of the case. You cannot 
now argue the subject with the master. You might once 
have done it — you may do it hereafter — but you cannot 
do it NOW. It is a matter, which belongs to himself per- 
sonally. Your interference is impertinent, and you have 
excluded yourself from the right to debate the question. 
He says, you shall not debate the subject — he withdraws it 
from controversy. And he exercises his right. Here 
you see one evil, and but one, which the present excite-, 
ment has produced in its influence on the mind of the 
slaveholder. He is put in an attitude of defence, a most 
unfavorable position always for the reception of truth. 
If he would permit the argument to proceed, if he con- 
sents to entertain the subject, you have awakened in him 
the strongest prejudices, and raised the most insuperable 
obstacles to his conviction. You have /or the present ex- 
cluded the subject from argument. You may go into any 
gentleman's house, and with courtesy and kindness intro- 
:duce the most important, and often the most unacceptable 



34 LETTERS ON SLAVfiRY". 

of all subjects, the subject of religion. He will hear you, 
and you may lay the truth to his conscience. But, enter 
his house with rashness, superciliousness, and disregard- 
ing the common principles of civility, attack him rudely, 
in presence of his domestics, and awaken his pride and 
other bad passions, — I say to you, however, philanthropic 
and pious your intentions, however important the subject, 
however just may be your own views on that subject, and 
however erroneous his, he will be very likely to open his 
door, and direct you to leave his house. You may, as 
you retire, commend your own faithfulness, but it has 
been exercised at the expense of prudence, and politeness, 
and the common courtesies of life. And is this a proper 
exemplification of the spirit of our religion ? Is this the 
example of Christ ? Is this " the servant of the Lord," 
who is directed, in his efforts of benevolence, to be 
" gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient ; in meekness 
instructing those that oppose themselves ; if God perad- 
venture will give them repentance, to the acknowleging of 
the truth ?" You may be very bold, and active, and ener- 
getic in a good cause, — but your usefulness is at end. 

Such is the result of the abolition movements of the 
])resent day — they have excluded the subject of slavery 
from debate with the slaveholder. You cannot come here 
with it. Does any abolition lecturer come into the slave- 
holding country? No. He cannot even pass the boun- 
dary line with personal safety. He cannot even speak 
now^ by his printed argument. He is not permitted to 
use the press to communicate his views to the South, a 
privilege never before denied. I simply state the fact, 
now well known. I sincerely hope that the lesson already 
given will effectually foreclose any attempt to introduce 
this subject into the next Congress. It will not be enter-' 
tained. It should in no form, be attempted. It is enough 
Avith every prudent man to say, it can do no good. It 
should be enough with every selfish, and rash man, every 
one, not utterly blind, and deaf to reason, and experience, 
to reflect on the certainty that it must do much harm. 
Time alone can cure the evils inflicted on the cause of the 
slave by imprudent friends. 

Whatever is done for the abolition of slavery must be 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 35 

•done by time, by dispassionate argument, by the slave- 
holder himself. The evils of slavery are great — but the 
■greatest evil is sufTered by the master himself. It only 
needs that those evils be felt, to lead the master to a course 
of conduct, which will first mitigate those evils, and then 
extinguish them. The massacre at Southampton opened 
the eyes of the South to views of truth and duty in rela- 
tion to slavery, which nothing has served so much to ob- 
scure and retard, as the imprudent interference of the 
northern abolitionists. The prospective increase of the 
slave population, the dangers consequent, the necessity of 
limiting and diminishing their numbers, the necessity and 
duty of elevating their moral and intellectual character, 
with the means of effecting these objects, began seriously 
to engage the public attention and efforts, and more has 
been done than ever before, to furnish to the slave popu- 
lation religious instruction, and relieve the evils of their 
condition. Christian masters, and ministers of the Gos- 
pel, especially, vv^ere actively engaged with much success, 
until a set of gentlemen from abroad, interfered, saying, 
^' Sirs, you are altogether behind the age. This slavery 
is a sin, and the only Avay to treat sin is to leave it off. 
Therefore, immediate abolition is the true doctrine, and 
these slaves are your fellow citizens." This doctiine 
could not be received — and when it is officiously, and 
pertinaciously and imprudently urged, the slaveholder 
says to the abolitionist, leave my house, Sir, — you shal! 
not be permitted to speak to me or my family. The 
Unites States' Mail shall not be permitted to shield your 
incendiary publications from the flames ; and if you con- 
tinue to be equally regardless of my rights and my life, 
there is no law, and no country, that shall protect yours. 
The late disclosures in Misssissippi, calculated to pro- 
duce similar results on slavery as the insurrection already 
referred to, have only thrown greater difficulties over the 
whole subject. Occasional insurrection is one of the 
«vi]s inseparably incident to slavery. I do not know that 
any direct connection has been traced between that con- 
spiracy, (embracing the agency of hundreds of white 
men,) and the abolitionists. Yet the moment it occurs, 
the eyes of all men are turned to them, and public indig- 

4* 



36 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

nation towards them is embittered. The consequence is, 
attention is diverted from the elements of danger, which 
are inherent in the organization of a slave country, to 
those agencies abroad, whose action is regarded as neces- 
sarily productive of such consequences. Had we been 
left to contemplate these evils as inherent in our society, 
and this as one of their necessary developements, the 
lesson would have had a salutary influence such as we 
need, and such as the abolitionist both desires and pre- 
vents. The abolitionist is now execrated, and the privi- 
leges of the slaves abridged — whereas, the proper and 
legitimate influence of such events, should be, and but for 
the abolitionists would, in this case, be, to lead the slave- 
holders to adopt measures to diminish the number of 
slaves, and elevate the moral character of the balance. To 
this course the master is strongly urged, — greatest fidelity 
to their masters has always been found in pious slaves. 
Very few of such character have ever adopted the princi~ 
pies of the abolitionists. 

Such are some of the influences produced by the pres- 
ent excitement on the agitators themselves, on the masters 
and on the slaves. A train of evils, and evils only, grow 
out of this state of things, which I should be glad to bring 
to your consideration, had not this letter been already too 
extended. Before I close, let me advert to one very 
plausible and very popular retreat, which these agitators 
adopt, when called on to look at the necessary and bloody 
consequences of their work. They say, we address the 
master, and direct our publications only to intelligent citi- 
zens, who are at perfect liberty to return them, if they 
will not hear us. It is not so. Literally I do not believe 
Mr. Tappan, and other noble men, worthy of a better 
fame than they are now procuring to themselves — / da 
not believe they would place their publications in the 
hands of slaves of the South. But if permitted to come 
here, they cannot be excluded from the hands of the 
slaves. Does not Mr. Tappan know that they are made 
the wrapping papers to our wares and articles of domestic 
use — and thus are transmitted from the shop to the kitchen 
by the hand of the slave himself ? They are smuggled 
into the baggage of travelers to the South, — if theset 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY, 37 

travelers themselves are to be credited, and thrown out 
in every direction as waste paper. / know how to sepa- 
rate Arthur Tappan from these disgraceful tricks, but 
others, who know him only as the zealous president of the 
Abolition Society, trace them to no other responsibility. 
It is not singular, then, that the leaders, in this work of 
butchery, should be made responsible for the acts of the 
party. They are the authors of wrongs, which they 
know to exist, can prevent, and neglect. They must re- 
cede. They will recede ; will they not ? 



LETTER VI. 

South Carolina, Aug. 22, 1835. 

Rev. Silas McKeen : 

Dear Brother, — We should neA^er undertake to award 
a sentence to the South as a slaveholding community, nor 
against slavery as it there exists, without recurring to the 
history of its introduction, and applying the golden rule 
to the measure of our judicial opinion — " to do to others 
as we would they should do to us." 

In its first introduction, slavery was forced upon the 
states, then colonics. The active agents, employed in 
stealing the fathers of the present African race in this 
country, and in conveying them from their native shores, 
were not the ancestors of the present slaveholders. 
They were either Europeans, or northerners of the 
United States, who were interested in commerce. Many 
of them were New England men, whose descendants are 
now living on the estates thus accumulated. 

In presenting slavery as a sin to the mind of a slave- 
holder, it is to be considered that he is deeply interested. 
You propose to take away his property without an equiva- 
lent, and make him poor. You must not, then, be soon 
angry, nor harsh, if you do not make him see at once with 
your eyes, and accord with your sentiments. He occupies 
a very different position, and you cannot easily place him 
in yours until you make a bona fide purchase of bis slaves, 
and then use the arguments against his opinions, affect- 
ing your property, which you have now to urge against 
the combined force of his early prejudices, cherished 
sentiments, and pecuniary interest. You are to consider 
that he has inherited to a certain degree, his father's opin- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 39 

ions as well as his property ; and to think and do as our 
fathers did is dictated by a deep rooted pride of ancestry, 
if not by a law of nature. It is to be considered also, 
that in our country there is a North and a South, and al- 
though we may seek to bind them together by indissoluble 
bonds, they are, and always will be, wider apart than the 
East and the West. The very subject before us forms 
one of the distinctive features of difference between those 
who are still counted as brethren. 

Suppose your brother should come to you, and declare 
that your nose is freckled, and insist on skinning it, or that 
your head is deformed and undertake to scalp you; — 
would you readily submit to the operation ? No sir ; you 
would not submit. You would attribute his conduct to 
mental derangement or to every bad motive, and aliena- 
tion would irresistably fix upon yoar feelings. Suppose he 
should get impatient and knock you down ; — would that 
have any tendency to convince you ? Would it not enrage 
you, and drive you farther from him 1 He must first con- 
vince you that what he says is true — that there was a mis- 
take in your formation and that he can rectify it. He 
must also convince you that these sacrifices and suffer- 
ings are a duty, or that they will be fully compensated by 
greater advantages. The task will be still more difficult 
if the peculiarity in your formation is charged as a defor- 
mity, touching deeply your pride ; and at the same time 
condemned as a sin, the greater because persisted in. 
Your brother must proceed very tenderly with you, or he 
will never induce you to be skinned and scalped, and you 
will go down to the grave with your deformities in spite 
of his philanthropy and fraternal expostulations. 

The supposition in the argument is precisely applicable. 
You have to convince the slaveholder, before you can in« 
duce him to any course of conduct. Some of them, you 
must convince that nature has made a mistake in her for- 
mation, or, what is in effect the same in application to 
his practice, you must convince him that he is wrong in 
his views of nature's works. You must then clear the 
subject as respects his duty and personal interests, and 
until you do this, all your harsh language, criminations or 
violence will do no good, will only make him more per» 



40 ^ LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

verse in his supposed errors — supposed errors in your 
code of morality, the reverse in his. 

The people of the South must be convinced before they 
can be influenced. This is what I have attempted to 
place in a strong light. Until this conviction is effected, 
nothing is done. This subject cannot bo approached by 
authority. The authority is in their favor — the Constitu- 
tion, the palladium of our rights. They cannot be influ- 
enced by force. Every slaveholder in the country would 
suffer himself to be immolated, if he could not effectually 
resist, before he will submit to dictation on this subject. 
The slaves themselves m.ay be excited to rebellion, and 
may, in the conaict kill many of their masters. But 
every body knows what must be the result in such a con- 
flict. Neighborhoods of Avhite people may sufier, may 
be annihilated, but the men, who have effected this havoc, 
have only procured a greater slaughter of the poor slaves 
and a heavier bondage, which must always be the result 
in such conflicts. They never can be free, but by the 
voluntary consent of the master. This consent can never 
be compelled. It must be voluntary, under a conviction 
of personal interest or duty. 

In order, then, to relieve, as far as possible the evils of 
slavery, and to terminate a quarrel among brethren, which 
has already proceeded almost to the last extremity, and 
threatens the very existence of the nation, in its federal 
and hitherto happy union, I will venture to propose a 
PLAN — and any man may propose a plan. I would pro- 
pose, that in all our consultations for the benefit of the 
people of color, the great question to be discussed should 
be — " hoio can their moral and intellectual elevation be most 
effectually promoted ?'''' That the efforts of all our soci- 
eties, now formed or that may hereafter be formed in behalf 
of the colored race, be directed to their moral and intel- 
lectual improvement. That it be the duty of each society 
to expend its energies on the objects of its benevolence 
within its own district, or to help other societies of the 
country in their laudable labors, with their consent and 
approbation. 

This must result in the termination of slavery, or in the 
aanihilation of its worst evils. It will bring about a coa^ 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 41 

trolling force of public opinion. As the moral character 
of the slave is elevated, he becomes more valuable, and 
his right, will be more respected by his master. Let this 
moral improvement proceed, and the result, every Chris- 
tian can easily estimate. This course of investigation 
will discover to us that there are others besides the slaves, 
who call for similar sympathies. In the slaveholding 
states are one hundred and eighty two thousand free 
colored people, and one hundred and twenty two thousand 
in the free states. But is there properly a free man 
among them ? Not one. Which is the most free ? And 
which is to be preferred, the slavery of the one or the 
nominal freedom of the other ? What can you do for 
them ? And what ought we to do ? These and objects 
like these are worthy of an inquiry, and their execution 
is worthy of an effort. 

In the mean time, let every thing be done with the ut- 
most kindness, mutual forbearance and Christian charity. 
Let us seek facts, and look at them steadily on all sides. 
Let us seek to convince by argument and kindness, 
" forbearing threatening." Let this course be persevered 
in, until every slave and every man of color is converted 
to the faith of the Gospel and the hope of heaven, or 
until we can wash our hands and say we have done our 
duty. To the abolitionist, there is one consideration in 
favor of this plan, which must, if entertained, have some 
weight with him ; it may lead to the final emancipation 
of the slaves ; the contrary course, the course now pur- 
sued, never can. One other consideration, which must 
have weight with every good man, is this ; it can give no 
offence to any one ; the course now pursued gives offence 
to almost every one. 

Are there any ardent minds, who will pronounce this a 
spiritless course ? It is the spirit of the Gospel ; pow- 
erful as it is quiet, noiseless, but operative, attacking the 
seat of principle, and giving a tone to the moral feelings, 
from which flow all the charities and valuable sympathies 
of life. This spirit has always been denounced by bad 
men, and sometimes by inconsiderate and rash good men. 
Yet it is the lever, whose successful application has 
moved the moral world. It is not rash men nor a rash 



42 LETTERS ON SLAVERt. 

course, which has accomplished great revolutions, and 
procured great blessings for the human family. Luther, 
although often accused as such, was not a rash man. 
His moderation was constantly taxed to restrain the im- 
petuosity, and retrieve the losses sustained by the rash- 
ness of some of his followers ; men who, with all his 
zeal, lacked his prudence and wisdom. The same may 
be said of Calvin. A good cause is often injured more 
by indiscreet friends than by open enemies. The Colo- 
nization Society was too tardy for the ardent benevolence 
of some spirits of the age, and the Abolition Society is 
formed. But it will retard, all that is practicable of their 
wishes, and bring incalculable evils on the slaves of the 
South. " For all things there is a time," — that is, for all 
things, which God has appointed to be done, He has ap- 
pointed a time. He, who would be employed as an hon- 
ored instrument to accomplish good for his race, must 
take God's time. The present is evidently not the time 
for the extinction of slavery in the southern states. But 
it is eminently the time for their moral improvement, and 
in this, we are diligently and successfully engaged. Let 

us ALONE. 

But the abolitionist, I know will still ask, — " must we 
leave the poor slave in his bondage ?" I say to him — yes, 
Sir, you must leave him there, where your ill directed, 
though perhaps well intended, zeal has prolonged his ser- 
vitude. Many good men at the South look forward with 
hope and expectation to an eventual termination of slave- 
ry. Indeed I have always been struck with the similarity 
of views entertained on the subject by intelligent men at 
the North and the South. But that cannot now be dis- 
cussed. The subject must be deferred. The idea 
has been favored in many minds to effect a termination of 
slavery, after the slaves are prepared for freedom, by a 
compensation to the owners. But this must be done by 
consent. It cannot be made a national question. You 
will not be permitted to discuss it on the floor of Congress. 
It might have been done on any principle of common cour- 
tesy. But it cannot now be done — it cannot be done for 
years to come, if ever. The discussion on this subject 
must be had in the state legislatures, and must finally 



•► % 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 43 

be disposed of by the citizens of the slaveholding states. 
Our abolition brethren have more philanthropy than 
logic or discretion. The true premises in the case would 
certainly lead M^ise men to very different action. Let us 
look at some of them. 

1. Slavery as it here exists, is not a subject of national 
legislation. 

2. The continuance of slavery in South Carolina (I 
specify a state) depends entirely and solely on the will of 
the citizens of South Carolina. 

3. If George Thompson, Esq., or any class of men 
would change the tenure of slavery in South Carolina, they 
must influence the minds of her citizens. If they would 
efface the spots on the sun, they must gain access to it. 

Yet what have they done ? They have transferred the 
discussion from its legitimate limits. They have attempt- 
ed to force it into a legislative action, where it can never 
be admitted. They have done every thing to alienate 
different sections of our beloved country. They have 
palsied the arm, that has been exerted for the real benefit 
of the slave at home. And by forcing this union to the 
point of dissolution, they have done more to prove the fa- 
vorite position of tyrants, that " man is unfit for lib- 
erty," than has been done in relation to our " grand ex- 
periment," by all other causes. I feel confident that I 
have now proposed all that, in the present state of the sub- 
ject, is either practicable or prudent. 

And now, my dear sir, in answering your questions, I 
have been led to say more than I at first intended, bat 
much less than I should be glad to express to you. I 
pray that we may all seek and find wisdom from above, 
that this agitating subject may be directed by that wis- 
dom, and I pray also that nothing I have said may offend 
God or injure my fellow men, but on the contrary be at- 
tended with unmixed good. 



LETTER VII, 

South Carolina^ Nov. 21, 18S5v 

Rev. Silas McKeen : 

Dear Brother, — In a brief rejoinder to your reply 
just received in the Mirror of the 29th ult., it is not my 
intention to prolong discussion, but simply to clear the 
subject, and leave it unembarrassed, for the double pur- 
pose that we may understand each other and be under- 
stood, and that the facts and sentiments expressed by me 
may be left to their fair and proper influence. 

Your letter is sufficiently kind and liberal ; and yet'you 
reply to my letters under the expressed apprehension that 
they contain " statements and reasonings, which, if suf- 
fered to pass unnoticed, might produce very injurious ef- 
fects." I shall be entirely satisfied to leave the whole to 
its legitimate effect with a few brief explanations on 
some of those points, which have awakened your appre- 
hensions. 

You are not satisfied that I call the slaves " the pro- 
perty of their holders." " Qui haeret in^ litera, haeret 
in cortice ;"^ he, who contends for a word, abandons the 
argument. I have no partiality for the term. I spoke of 
the thing as it is. The slave is the property of the mas- 
ter. He is so in law. The holder is a rich man with 
this possession, he is a poor man without it. In South 
Carolina, slaves are a man's property as much as his land 
is his property. The use of the term can surely, at this 
day, be distinguished from the moral right to hold this 
species of property, or in other words, to hold men as pro- 
perty. It requires only capacity to distinguish the differ- 
ence between a fact and a principle to settle the appro- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 45 

priate use of this term. In South Carolina, negroes are 
held as property. I have simply said, therefore, that 
when you talk to the holder of his duty to hberate his 
slaves, you require him to give up his property, and this 
is one of the practical difficulties you have to encounter. 
Were it my misfortune to be made, in the case you sup- 
pose, an Algerine captive, I certainly should have become 
the property of the man, who paid the price for me in the 
market, and put me to the oar. And if you in your phi- 
lanthropy or personal friendship should come to my relief, 
you would effect but little by all your fine, and cogent 
and well supported moral theories urged for my libera- 
tion. My master would not heed them. I am his pro- 
perty, and you must bring the cush, and buy me^ just as 
you i^vouid his horse, or must convince him that it is wrong 
for him to hold men as property : otherwise I shall die in 
slavery, notwithstanding all your morality, and your sym- 
pathy. My master thinks it is right for him to hold slaves. 
I would not thank you to tell him he is a villian, and that 
you w^ould " advise me to cut his throat." You would 
only make me the more a slave, and ahhough you might 
insist that by a long residence in the Barbary states, I had 
become " more assimilated to their modes of thinking, 
and feeling and reasoning than I was aware," — still I 
think, without despising your friendship, I should be con- 
strained to say, — LET ME ALONE. At Icast, I should 
advise you to chasten your zeal by discretion ; to approach 
my owner in such a way as to enable you to injluence 
him, or you may as well gain his consent to he skinned 
or scalped as to be robbed : for this is the aspect in which 
he would regard your visit. This is all I have said. I 
have only urged that you must be very careful how you 
approach this subject, or you cannot injluence the slave- 
holder. To guard against misapprehension, I explained 
myself by this conclusion. — " The people of the South must 
be convinced before they can be injluenccd. This is what 
I have attempted to place in a strong light." If you will 
review the argument, you will at once perceive that there 
was no design to represent " slaveholding as a natural 
calamity for which a man is no more to blame than for 
some physical deformity of his face or his skull." Of 



46 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

course his apprehension is without foundation that ray 
"reasoning in the case is suited to administer an opiate 
to the consciences of slaveholders, and to make them feel 
altogether too easy." I might with more propriety be ac- 
cused by the slaveholder of a design to instruct the abo- 
litionist how he might succeed in his plans. 

But to go a little farther with my own case, in the pre- 
dicament you have supposed, as a galley-slave ; suppose 
my owner should adopt in some luckless moment, the 
doctrine of immediate abolition, and disregarding, in a 
phrenzy of benevolence, his own convenience while row- 
ed in state by his obedient slaves, should take himself the 
oar and cast me into the sea. Perhaps, although a slave, 
I might crave the labor of the oar rather than to be eaten 
by the fishes. I might perhaps with great ease and plea- 
sure swim to the shore, but then I might also encounter 
the jaws of the sharks. Or, arrived safely on shore, either 
by my own exertions or through the courtesy of my mas- 
ter, I might be ignorant of the language of the' country, 
destitute of the means of living, a stranger and liable to 
be taken again and sold into a deeper bondage, or exposed 
to greater evils than those of slavery. Might I not sigh 
for the protection of my. master, and lament his conver- 
sion to abolition principles ? Might he not at least have 
prepared me for freedom, by educating me in the language 
of the countiy, and furnishing same necessary facilities 
and means of protection from the evils which surround 
me ? Would you not as my friend, if you were there, 
where you have sought to try my principles, would you 
not plead for me that my bondage might be prolonged, 
and my freedom granted under other and .more favorable 
circumstances ? 1 know you would. And I think you 
would urge upon him the law of love to enforce your ar- 
gument. 

When you charge upon tbe whites the fault that the 
slaves are unfit for freedom, you are not, as you seem to 
suppose, combatting any position of mine. I have simply 
stated the fact. There it is. Remove it, and then we 
shall have advanced a step. When you go to the Avhite 
man and tell him he ought to instruct his slave, I go with 
you. When you tell the white man of the free states that 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 47 

he ought to seek the intellectual and moral elevation of 
the negro race, I go with you ; and vi^hen you show me 
exertions there for this end equal to those which are now 
made here for the slave, you show me what never existed 
up to the period of my removal from New England. 
" The dogs''^ are not all South of Mason and Dixon's 
line. 

You complain of the distinction I make between slavery * 
in the abstract, and the right to hold a slave under given 
circumstances as an " approximation to the truth," and 
liable to abuse. On the contrary, I regard it as the truth 
itself, and less liable to bring injury to all concerned than 
any other theory in the case. If domestic slavery as it 
exists in this country did not exist at all, I should know 
of no way to introduce it. Here is my view of slavery in 
the abstract. Yet, if I were the owner of a slave ; which 
I am not and never expect to be ; if I imre, I have no 
morality and no religion, which would require or permit 
me, absolutely and without regard to circumstances, to give 
him his freedom. My application of the law o/" Zove would 
forbid it. I could perhaps do better by him. Does this 
position " furnish every slaveholder in the land with a 
sufficient excuse for his conduct ?" To his own master 
he stands or falls. If he cannot be influenced by the truths 
I will not do evil that good may come. There are some 
men, who will abuse every wholesome truth. For my- 
self, I would prefer in my Algerine captivity, the protec- 
tion of a good master, to liberty under a great variety of 
supposable and possible circumstances. And I would do 
to others as I would have others, in similar circumstances, / 
do to me, 

In giving you some facts to shov/ that much is done to 
instruct the slaves of this country, I took good care to in- 
form you that it was only one side of the picture, and that 
we could present a very different view of the same sub- 
ject, on which we wer6 accustomed to dwell when at- 
tempting to urge on our efforts. That other side of the 
picture, you have quoted from the report of a Committee 
of our Synod in 1833, " quorum fui pars," in which I par- 
ticipated. It is not at variance with my present state- 
ments. One is a view of what we have done, compared 

5* 



46 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

with notliing ; the other, compared with what remains to 
be done, and ought to be done. So we are accustomed to 
speak on all our great benevolent enterprises. You, I 
have no doubt, so regard your own statement of the case, 
which, to a superficial reader, might imply a discrepancy. 

You think I " do injustice to the abolitionists." I would 
not do them injustice. If I understand them, and I think 
I do, they insist on immediate abolition at all hazards. 
They assume that this subject is a national concern, and 
slavery is a national disgrace. They have written and 
circulated incendiary publications in a manner calculated 
to excite insurrection. Some of the most unguarded of 
them have openly avowed this design. Their whole 
course of proceeding is calculated to produce this result. 
They are rash, unadvised and obstinate. They defeat 
their object, agitate the country, and are bringing lasting 
evils on the Avliole nation. All this I believe, and with 
more concessions in favor of the motives of many of their 
leading men than it is popular to make, I believe their 
schemes productive of more evil than they will ever be 
able to repair. This I say of abolitionism and abolitionists 
as a body, while I greatly respect and highly esteem many 
men of this class. 

I see in the Abolition Society of Maine the names of 
some men, whom I know and esteem among the best. In 
the report of their meeting held in Brunswick on the 28th 
of October, I see the following preamble and resolution 
recorded as adopted ; viz. — " Whereas it is often said by 
our opponents that slaves ought not to be liberated till 
they are properly educated, and whereas those opponents 
are often complaining that abolitionists have done nothing 
towards liberating the slaves, therefore, Resolved, That 
we have liberated as many as our opponents have educated 
and promise to continue to do the same.*' Tliis is a 
noble resolution, and I am sure that, under the deliberate 
action of such men, it cannot be mere gasconade. No 
doubt, some calculations were furnished by the mover to 
show that the assertion contained in the resolution was 
the truth. Although I feel confident that other statements 
might be substantiated to subvert the position, yet it is the 
pledge wliich is of principal importance ; and coming from 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 49 

such men it is of great value. I can render them, per- 
haps some important aid in fulfilment of this most benevo- 
lent pledge. I know not less than five hundred slaves 
who are " properly educated," in my judgment, for freedom, 
and I presume my opinion of their qualifications in this 
respect will be admitted. They have been educated by 
" opponents" of the abolitionists, and can be procured at a 
fair price, according to the laws of the country. Any 
agencies, which may be appointed to effect the plan of the 
" Anti-Slavery Society of Maine," in the fair purchase of 
them for " liberation," shall have my aid, and I have no 
doubt the number may be, by a little inquiry swelled to 
thousands, and constantly increased. Will you please to 
announce this interesting information to that enterprising 
and benevolent society, in such a way as will enable them 
immediately to carry their resolution into effect. 

In conclusion you express some surpri-se that I should 
say, LET us ALONE. Let me assure you, my dear sir, 
this is the best thing you can do for us ; it is all you can 
now do, and doing this you will do much. Can you not 
comprehend it ? Was you ever sick, and in that sickness 
did you ever find your chamber crowded with officious, 
well disposed, anxious friends, plying you with questions, 
and insisting on doing something for you, until your dis- 
ease was aggravated, and the fever inflamed by the very 
remedies attempted ? And have you not heartily wished 
that they would let you alone, and leave you to the regular 
nurses ? If so, this illustration will enable you to com- 
prehend the import of my exhortation — let us alone. 
The example is intended to illustrate this point only. 

To the *' Maine Anti-Slavery Society," I would say, 
however, go on with your noble resolution, and much may 
be done to soothe and heal old wounds, and promote eman- 
cipation. 

To the " Maine Union in behalf of the colored race," 
I would say, diligently prosecute your noble object. Take 
the colored people of Maine or New England, and ele- 
vate them to the moral and intellectual character of which 
they are susceptible, and show us, what I fully believe, 
but many doubt, that they are not inferior in mental en- 
dowment to the white man ; and you will have enough to 



50 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

do, and doing it, will have accomplished a great work ; 
great not only in itself but in its diversified influence on 
the interests of the negro race. You will by this means 
most directly and effectually act on the slave and on slave- 
ry, deeply, silently, peacefully, effectually. 

And now, brother McKeen, I hope we are better friends 
than ever. You think that in avoiding the rocks on one 
hand, I am in danger from the whirlpool. In return let 
me say to you, I fear you are sailing too near the breakers. 
I am glad of this opportunity to hail you in the voyage of 
life, and hope we shall neither of us "hate instruction 
and despise reproof," but keeping a good lookout, may 
avoid all the ultraisms of the times, preserve the " golden 
mean," and make our port in peace. 



LETTER VIIL 



To Rev. Asa Cummings, 

Editor of the Christian Mirror. 

Dear Sir, — In public answers recently made through 
your columns, to several questions propounded to me on 
the subject of slavery, I have an earnest desire that what 
has been said should have its due weight and no more. 

Yet I feel deeply in view of the possible and probable 
issue of this great controversy, and must ask the privilege, 
in a final communication, to present that issue to the 
consideration of your readers, as it appears to my own 
mind. 

The abolition societies cannot now be considered con- 
temptible either in numbers or influence. They embrace 
many men of worth, and many ministers of the Gospel, 
whose motives, I doubt not are purely Christian. Under 
the impulse of this principle, in a cause, which is regard- 
ed by them as involving great interests, they will be ac- 
tive, energetic and efficient. This action has assumed a 
system, and embraces numbers, and exerts a power, which 
must bear with great effect on its object for good or for 
evil. That it commenced in the claim of Christian phi- 
lanthropy, gives us the greatest reason to fear that there 
may be no abatement of zeal and effort until a dreadful 
issue shall compel them to see the truth when repentance 
shall be unavailing. 

The seat of these operations is in the northern states, 
remote from the evil whose removal is sought, and con- 
ducted hitherto by a small minority of the people of those 
states. They began in benevolence toward the slave, and 
a desire to give him his liberty. Certain assumed premi- 
ses have been urged as constituting an obligation to ac- 



52 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

tion. A plan is laid for the attainment of the object, 
which has now been diligently prosecuted for sereral years. 
No constitutional riorht to interfere with the existence of 
slavery in the states is claimed. The positions are these. 
The slaves of the southern states have an original and 
unalienable right to freedom. It is, therefore, a para- 
mount duty of their holders to give them their freedom at 
once and at all hazards. And although the Constitution 
of this nation protects these slaveholders in the right of 
their slave property, this provision is in contravention of a 
higher law, the law of nature, and the great moral law of 
love. Therefore, it is the first duty of the nation, in the 
discharge of high moral obligations, lying at the foimda- 
tion of social order, to demand the abrogation of slavery, 
at once, universally and forever, and leave the conse- 
quences to the natural operation of that great moral law, 
under which the emancipation is claimed. 

To effect these great objects, a system of measures is 
adopted and prosecuted with great labor, which is design- 
ed to convert the nation to their opinions, and thereby 
accomplish their object, the extinction of slavery. 

We find the subject now involved in bitter controversy. 
The conflict thickens. Human passions evidently urge on 
the " holy war." It hastens to its issue. Is it not pos- 
sible to call a truce ? Does not policy require it of our 
abolition bretliren ? Is it not demanded by Christian pru- 
dence ? May they not find it profitable to review the 
premises, see what has been gained or lost, what they are 
now driving at, and what must be the issue ? Things may 
look very differently at the place they now occupy from 
the " form and feature," and prospect they presented three 
years ago. Some errors, then unconsciously embraced, 
may have been since corrected, new information may 
have been gained, or circumstances may now indicate a 
change of action. What was begun in Christian philan- 
thropy may have awakened, in conflict, the worst passions, 
and be prosecuted with a spirit of unkindness or revenge. 
May I not ask my abolition brethren, may I not ask all, 
to pause and review the whole ground, present state, and 
probable issue of the controversy ? 

Xbis review may be embraced under three inquiries. 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 53 

First, the soundness of the positions taken in the premises 
by the abolitionists, of which I have just endeavored tb 
give a candid statement. Secondly, the character of the 
measures they have pursued to accomplish their objects, 
with the present state of the controversy : and Thirdly, 
the ISSUE, Avhich they now make and which is inevitable 
in the successful prosecution of their plans. 

On the first inquiry, I cannot here enter, except so 
far as is necessary to guard the premises from perversion. 
Liberty is a natural right. This is granted. It is a first 
principle. Yet, as a naked proposition put into the mouth 
of every man under every possible variety of circum- 
stances, it is a dangerous fallacy, the opposite extreme of 
the doctrine that " might makes right." It can be applied 
to the immediate emancipation of the southern slaves with 
no more safety or propriety than the " right of the strong- 
est" can furnish to the poor of New England a pretext to 
employ their physical or numerical superiority to enforce 
an aorrarian law. 

None will deny that a maniac or an idiot may be re- 
strained of his liberty. vSo may a minor. A vagrant, 
wandering about in the freedom of nature, may be im- 
prisoned, and compelled to work for his daily bread. An 
idle, lazy, pilfering people may be enslaved, and are lia- 
ble to be so. A man, committing suicide may be deprived 
of his liberty. I say, therefore, the right, which a man 
has to his o\vn liberty, depends to some extent on cir- 
cumstances, and must be held in relation to the rights of 
all others. He may not have a right to his liberty, which 
would endanger the life, or property, or morals of his 
neighbor, as the case of the maniac, the thief and the 
vagrant may serve for illustration. The naked proposi- 
tion, as applied to the slaves of the South for their imme- 
diate emancipation, is a fallacy. It would injure them, 
and endanger the essential rights of others. Are the 
other cases referred to, subjects of law, so is slavery the 
subject of the highest human law, conventional law. 

If the proposition is applied specifically to the act of 
stealing men from Africa, and subjecting them to slavery, 
the laws of all the states against the slave trade have pro- 
nounced upon, and afhrnied it piracy. But when made to 



54 LETTERS ON SLAVERif* 

apply to the slaves in these states, requiring their immediate 
emancipation, the position is denied, and here the contro- 
versy commences. The abolitionists can exercise no con- 
stitutional power over the slaves or slavery, and can suc- 
ceed in the emancipation of these slaves only by con- 
verting the owners to their opinions. Under this state of 
the question, the abolitionists commence operations. 

On the second head of inquiry let us now review the 
measures they have pursued to accomplish their objects, and 
the present state of the controversy. They began by es- 
tablishing societies at the North for the express object of 
effecting the extinction of slavery in the southern states. 
They proceeded to establish newspapers in aid of this 
cause, to extend their societies through the non-slavehold- 
ing states, to publish tracts, to hold anniversary meetings, 
to send lecturers through the country, and by these, and 
various other means, to produce a general excitement on 
the subject of slavery. These papers and tracts were 
often false in fact, and dictated by the most bitter and de- 
nunciatory spirit against the holders of slaves. It is true, 
this has been denied, and in their ardent zeal and pecu- 
liar temper, it is possible the authors and patrons of these 
publications thought the denial true. Mild and temperate 
they might have been compared with the restrained and 
smothered spirit, which remained unexpressed. But I 
hazard nothing in saying, that with all, except the pledged 
friends of the cause, they have been deemed bitter, accu- 
satory, and highly offensive in their language and spirit. 
These publications have been sent frequentlj' to slave- 
holders, and others at the South, particularly to ministers 

•^ of the Gospel. During the last year, large sums of money 
were raised for printing and distributing pamphlets and 
papers of the same character, with the professed design to 
awaken the country to one indignant effort to exterminate 
slavery. 

These publications, in due time, came out, like the lo- 
custs on the face of Egypt. They formed the wrapping 

-paper for our wares, and articles of domestic use. They 
were surreptitiously packed with our goods and boxes, 
and stowed with the baggage of southern travelers, and 
thrown into their carriage boxes. They presented to th« 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 55 

eyes of those, who could not read, the picture of the story 
they tokl. They finally flooded the country through the 
channel of the United States' Mail, until the people at the 
South, by one unlawful act at Charleston, and several 
summary processes in other places on individual adven- 
turers, proclaimed in a voice to be heard through the na- 
tion-— but with a moderation truly surprising, under the 
then existing state of excitement — proclaimed that the 
match prepared to fire the magazine, should not be per- 

fiitted to enter, even under authority of the United States 
eal — that there was one thins more sacred than the union 
itself, THAT for which the union was created. 

Here new questions were agitated on the subject of 
State rights, freedom of speech, &c., and new sympathies 
were enlisted, into a consideration of which I will not now 
enter. The South at this juncture said to the aboli- 
tionists, you have forfeited the privilege of a further hear- 
ing. You shall not speak to us on this subject. You 
may listen to your own declamations, or declaim to those 
who will hear, but you shjill not speak on this side the 
Potomac, nor find a cover for your incendiary publications. 
But this has produced no relaxation of their efforts, no 
softening of their spirit, no indication of a conciliatory 
temper. The contest still rages. The South is united 
in support of their own institutions, and against the aboli- 
tionists. The abolitionists, shut out from a hearing at the 
South, proceed with untiring zeal, in an effort to convert 
the North to their peculiar views. And what if they suc- 
ceed? What then? They have already united the South. 
They will then have united the North. In what? Why, 
they will have succeeded in uniting the North against the 
South and the South against the North. They will have 
planted a root of bitterness, which will strike deep in the 
very structure of society, whose luxuriant fruits shall be 
plucked and eaten by our children, perhaps to the latest 
generation. 

This is the issue. It is inevitable. When the North 
shall say to the South, " We do not claim a constitutional 
right to interfere with your institutions, but you must and 
shall abandon your slavery, for it is wrong" — then this 
Union is at an end. The practical result is inevitable. And 

6 



^6 LETTERS ON SLAVfiltlf^ 

I am pained to see that thfs is the issue now hoMly ayid 
openly made, not only by the fash spirits who have led the 
way and borne the execrations of an honest and indignant 
community, but by their most influential and responsible 
men. Their motto is legibly written, "Union without 
slavery, or disunion with it." " We are proceeding rap- 
idly," said an eminent abolitionist, " to gain the North- 
Let us succeed in uniting the North and we will take care 
of the South." The last labor will be spared them. The 
South will then, be assured, take care of herself. 

I cannot believe that all, who have espoused the cause 
of the abolitionists, understand them distinctly to make the 
issue 1 have stated. I believe many would shudder at 
the thought. Yet, that such is the settbed and deliberate 
purpose of the Society, as well as the miiform tendency 
and inevitable result of their measures, might be shown 
by copious reference to their published papers. In con- 
firmation of this position, I will only refer to one of their 
number, a man who cannot occupy a place in the ranks 
of any party without becoming a leader — a man, whose 
philanthropy, general candor, and unblemished character 
secure universal respect and give influence to his opinions 
on every subject. In the honesty of his heart, he uses 
the following decisive and portentous language in his 
speech at Peterborough, on the occasion of his public as- 
sent to the principles of the abolition Society : "It cannot 
be disguised, sir, that war has broken out between the 
South and the North, not easily to be terminated. Politi- 
cal and commercial men for their own purposes, are in- 
dustriously striving to restore a peace. But the peace,, 
which they will accomplish, will be superficial and hol- 
low. True and permanent peace can only be restored by 
removing the cause of the war — that is, slavery. It can 
never be established on any other terms. The sword^ 
now drawn will not be sheathed till victory, entire victory 
is ours or theirs. Not until that deep and damning stain 
is washed from our nation, or the chains of slavery are 
riveted afresh where they now are and on our necks also. 
It is idle, criminal to speak of peace on any other terms." 
Such is the public declaration of Gerrit Smith — sustained 
by the avowal of others on all sides that we will wash our 



1/STT^RS ON SLAVERY, 57 

liands of the sin of slavery, even at the expense of the 
Union. 

Now v/hat is the actual state of public opinion at the ^ 
"South. There are some, who contend that slavery is a 
political and social blessing. This is the view of the 
subject presented in the last annual message of Gov. Mc- 
Duffie, The same sentiment was expressed by Gov. Mil- 
der several years ago. So far as my kowledge of individ- 
5ual opinion extends, this precise view of the subject is not 
-extensively entertained. There is probably a large class, 
who think it justifiable on political, social and religious 
principles, necessary to the prosperity of the country, and 
•that it must be perpetuated. There is also a numerous 
<;lass, v/ho would be glad to see the system terminated^ 
who have been anxiously looking for some practicable 
'Schom« of emancipation, in which the real good of the 
■slave^ and the safety of the country, should be consulted 
^and sustained, and who are willing to make great personal 
sacrifices whenever such a prospect shall open. Yet, on 
the question of holding their slaves under existing circum- 
stances, the consciences of the holders, are entirely at 
ease. I do not think that the best Bible Christians here 
-meet with any difficulty on this point. On the question 
of duty, as mad€ by the abolitionists, there is the most per- 
:fect unanimity in the four southern Atlantic states^ and I 
think also through the entire South. On the issue now 
.made by the ■abalitionists too, there is an equal unanimity, 
-and the motto is, according to the original compact, "The 
Union Avith slavery, or disunion without it." 

The united action of all the ecclesiastical bodies at the 
-South on this subject is decided, and decisive of the sen- 
;timents of Christians. And I ask my Christian friends 
*of the abolition Society — is not tlije opinion of the whole 
southern Church of some important weight in this matter? 
«Grant that the politicians are influenced by ambitious mo- 
-lives, and the merchants and tradesmen by the mere sor- 
•did love of gain, can you easily believe that those thou- 
sands of ministers of the Gospel, who "count not their 
lives dear to them," who do, and suffer, as much as any 
set of ministers in our land — can you believe that they, 
^nd the ieps of thousands of Church members associatejl 



58 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

with them, are recreant to their Master and his cause oft 
earth, when they tell you that you are palsying their arms 
extended to the spiritual relief of the slave, that you are 
rivetting his chains, that you are multiplying his stripes, 
and increasing his burdens, that you are taking from him 
the bread of life, and making no return ? Where then will 
the RESPONSIBILITY rcst, if these slaves perish in their 
sins? Will you not hear us when we assure you that you 
are doing the cause of the slave no good but much harm? 
Will you not be entreated to desist? Then we must say 
the RESPONSIBILITY BE ON YOU ! I would not bear it. It 
is the price of souls. 

I know some good men, assuming that the slaves ought 
now to be free, put off the responsibility from themselves 
by assuming also that their measures ought not to have an 
injurious eflect on the interests of the slave ; and if they 
do have that effect, it is not their fault. But they reason 
against fact. They may also prove from the known laws 
of matter that the planets ought to move in circles, and not 
ill elliptical orbits round the sun, and if they do move in 
ellipses, the sun ought to be in the centre, and not in the 
focus of the ellipse. But notwithstanding the demonstra- 
tions, there are the facts standing against them. There 
are the planets moving steadily in their elliptical orbits, 
and there is the sun maintaining his station in the focal 
point. Their moral demonstrations may satisfy the con- 
sciences of the abolitionists, and give energy to their ac- 
tion, but they are damning to the slave who is made the 
object of a false and fatal philanthropy. Let the respon- 
sibility rest where it ought. 

I have said that the statements, by which the abolition 
society attempts to make its converts, are false as well as 
bitter and denunciatory. False in point of fact, I say and 
repeat. I might, if necessary, furnish copious proof to 
this point, which must throw a tremendous responsibility 
on the members of that society. I will, however, make 
one reference. I suppose the Society will not shrink 
from the responsibility of what is presented at their an- 
nual meetings, in resolutions carefully prepared before- 
hand, urged on the public acceptance by popular decla- 
mation, and passed unanimously. At the last anniversary 



l^ETTERS ON SLAVERY, 59 

€)f the abolition society in the city of New-York, the fol- 
lowing resolution was offered and suj)ported by one of 
their most popular speakers, and received with great ap- 
plause, ^'liesulved, That the practice of suffering one 
sixth part of the population o{ this Christian land to perish 
destitute of the volume of revelation, and the ministry of 
the Gospel is inconsistent with the profession of zeal for 
the conversion of the world." " This resolution I offer," 
said the speaker, "has respect to the moral and spiritual 
condition of your colored population; and I do say that 
one sixth of your entire population are left to perish with- 
jout the word of God, or the ministry of the Gospel." 
Again he says, "It is true there are in South Carolina 
not twelve slaveholders who instruct their slaves." 

Now did not the speaker know, and did not those who 
furnished him with this resolution, and those who ap- 
plauded him, know that this resolution asserted a false- 
hood? And that the whole eloquent harangue appended 
to it was as false as it was unjust to the South, and espe- 
cially to the Christian church ? I assert for South Caro- 
lina, that her slave population are less destitute of the 
volume of revelation than a large class of the peasantry of 
Great Britain. I assert, that the slaves of South Carolina 
are better furnished with the ministry of the Gospel than 
ihe entire population of the city of New-York. I assert, 
that the Christian church in South Carolina embraces a 
larger proportion of her slave population than the church 
in Maine does of her white population. And my asser- 
tions, I may perhaps be permitted without vanity to say, 
are as good as George Thompson's ; and when proved 
they are a great deal better than his assertions. Now, 
then, for the proof. 

Take five millions of Roman Catholics in Ireland, des* 
litute of the Bible. Have they excited Mr. Thompson's 
commiseration ? Has he pleaded for them ? Does their 
existence in the heart of the British empire, invalidate all 
her claims to benevolence, asserted in her wide spread 
missionary enterprise for the " conversion of the world ?" 
He has ceased to plead for Ireland. Why? From poli- 
tical considerations. The peace of the country demanded 
it. Christian duty has been determined by the circum- 

6* 



60 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

Stances of the case. Now, while Catholic Ireland is pro- 
perly destitute of the Bible, the slaves of South Carolina, 
to a great extent, receive the pure word by oral instruc- 
tion; and none, so far as I know, are debarred from reli- 
gious instruction. Will Mr. Thompson go to "London, 
Birmingham, or Hackney," and plead for Catholic Ire- 
land? No. He will go there to abuse and vilify our 
country, and his countrymen wh® refused to join him in 
vilifying it before an American audience in the city of 
New -York. And by what rule of morality can he con- 
demn us, which will not apply to his own condemnation 
on the other side of the Atlantic. 

A comparison may be easily made between the religious 
condition of South Carolina and the city of New-York, 
so far as the Gospel ministry is concerned. With a pop- 
ulation, at the present timiC, but little short of 3C0,0C0, 
New-York has not 2C0 m,inisters of every class. With 
a population of 528,CC0, black and white, South Carolina 
has more than 500 ministers of all denominations.* 

Every minister here is a preacher to the slaves. They 
enjoy the benefits of his ministry in common with the 
masters. When the Sabbath arrives to the master, it 

* According to the latest documents that I can command, which con- 
sist of reports of the several denominations, in no ci se more than two 
years old, I make the following results for Souih Carolina : 

Baptists— Ministers, 156. 

Licentiates, 70. 

Methodists, conn^cted with Conference, 87. 

Presbyterian— Ministers, 64. 

Licentiates, 20. 

Episcopalian — Minister?, 44. 

Lutheran — Ministers, 12. 

Licen tiate?, 8. 

Covenanters — Mmisters, 1. 

Associate Reformed, — Ministers, 9. 

Whole number, 471. 

There are some others in the regular ministry, not here r mmerated, 
besides numerous local preachers of the Meihodist denomination, and 
many others of the Baptist. And some of th< fe, althoi;gh i ot n ported 
in their minutes are among thur most tfficient ministers. Reconirg all 
these, the Methodist and Baptist preachers alone would probably r um- 
ber Uttle less than 500. 

Churches of all d'-nominaticns in the ci;y of New-Yoik, accotdinc to 
Williams' Register for 1836, are 146. The number of officiatin^r minis- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 61 

comes also to the slave. Wherever masters enjoy a Gos- 
pel ministry, their slaves enjoy the ministry. Usually, 
and especially in the towns, they go to the same church, 
and listen to the same Gospel. 

In attempting a comparison of the white population of 
Maine with the slaves of South Carolina, as they are re- 
presented in the Christian church, I will take for Maine 
a statement made not long since, Mr, Editor, in your 
paper, in which it was supposed the whole number of 
communicants was 60,000. I will state the present num- 
ber of inhabitants at 420,000, which is probably within 
the truth, and thus give the proportion of church members 
in Maine as one seventh of the whole. The present num- 
ber of slaves in South Carolina is supposed to be near 
264,000 — of these, 45,000, more than one sixth of the 
whole, are reputable members of the Christian church. 
Could these, and all the necessary facts in the case, be 
stated and read, and carefully considered, I would, with- 
out a single throb of anxiety, leave George Thompson, 
and his statements, and the whole cause, in the hands of 
New England men. But bold assertions often repeated, 
and uncontradicted, often are made to pass for truth, and 
thus enlist the spirit of benevolence in enterprises, which 
are subversive of its objects. 

In the face of these facts, Mr. Thompson told his audi- 
ence that he stood before them as the "advocate of moth- 
ers, of brothers, of sisters, deprived of Sabbaths, denied 
the Bible, shut out from Gospel privileges." And stand- 
ing up in an assembly of American citizens, this same 
man, in the same speech, and in the uttering of these very 
falsehoods, applied the following horrible imprecation to 
himself, " Let my right hand forget its cunning, and my 
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I am ever capa- 



ters is supposed to be about equal to the number of churcbcs. There are 
aupernumei aries in some of the churches to balance the vacancies in 
others. AM 34 to 146 and you will have 180. This number will, no 
doubt, include all ihe acting clergymen in the city, tmbracing city mis- 
sionaries, and secretaries of benevolent societies, whose labors are but 
partially bestowed on the citv. The census of 1835, makes the whole 
population of New- York 270,000. It cannot now be much less thae 
300,000. 



6S LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

ble of misrepresenting or maligning her (America) or of 
sowing the seeds of animosity among her inhabitants." 

The charity that "hopeth all things'" seeks to admit the 
possibility that he knew not what he did. Had he landed 
in Charleston instead of New-York, and sought the truth, 
instead of " misrepresenting and maligning our country, 
and sowing the seeds of animosity among her inhabitants," 
he would have been politely received and hospitably en- 
tertained by the slaveholder ; he might have ascertained 
the facts in the case, he might have said any thing in 
Christian simplicity and plainness to the slaveholder him- 
self, and I venture to say, he wonld have made a very 
different speech in the city of New-York. Whatever 
opinion he might have retained on the subject of slavery, 
his awful imprecation would have been found in connec- 
tion with a very different statement of facts. 

I do not think the people of the South are unfriendly to 
the freedom of the press or of speech, even on the subject 
of slavery. It is conversed upon here with great freedom. 
"The omnipotence of slavery has no torpedo power to 
strike dumb the ministers of religion" here. I have never 
heard more faithful preaching any where than I have 
heard in southern pulpits on the duties of the master, and 
in presence of both masters and slaves. I think southern 
ministers preach on this subject after the example of 
Christ and his apostles, and as they would have preached 
in similar circumstances. 

No man here regards the circumstances, under which 
the incendiary pamphlets were arrested at Charleston, 
other than as extraordinary, and demanding prompt and 
decisive measures. Put a man's life in immediate jeop- 
ardy, or excite him even to a false apprehension of fatal 
danger, especially involve his wife and children in that 
danger — and he will make his own laws. You cannot 
prevent it. Who can control a popular excitement ? One 
man may originate it, or perhaps prevent it. But when 
awakened, what power can control it? 

Much has been said of the hard case of Mr. Dresser, 
who is declared to be, as I have no doubt he is, a worthy 
young man. But, without pronouncing Mar on his judges 
or accusers, he certainly was very imprudent, and might 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 63 

have expected more cause to complain than he has ex- 
pressed. Taking his own very honest account of the 
matter, is there any evidence, or any reason to beUeve, 
he would have fared better, under similar circumstances, 
in the hands of an excited community in New-York, or 
any northern state, in the hands of any class of men. I 
undertake to say that a prudent man would not have done, 
under the time and circumstances, as he did. It is my duty 
as a minister to address the Gospel to the slaves of my 
congregation as well as to their masters, and I do it. If 
any man does better, and accomplishes more, I rejoice at 
it. But I have "so learned Christ," as to regard pru- 
dence, as well as fearlessness, an important qualification 
for the Gospel ministry. I would not carry a torch in my 
hand to extinguish the flames on my neighbor's house : 
I am taught too by high authority, sometimes to "keep 
my mouth as with a bridle, and to hold my tongue, even 
from goodJ^ 

I have now attempted to call the attention of your 
readers to the issue of this controversy, to show that if 
prosecuted as it has been, and continues to be, it must 
necessarily terminate in a formal disruption of the national 
union, or in an inveterate enmity no less to be dreaded, 
and I have endeavored also to lead their minds on the 
track of abundant evidence that the abolitionists for them- 
selves, even now, distinctly make this issue. Their 
whole course of proceeding has no other direction. It 
injures the slave, it rivets his fetters, it breaks up the 
union. Let this once be effected, and what then? The 
first step will be to expel 182,000 free blacks from the 
slaveholding states. They will be quartered upon you, 
and claim your benevolence, and you must take care of 
them. Then measures must be taken to bring the slaves 
into a subjection, which shall secure the public safety. 
Fear of the slave will never give him his freedom. Then 
the abolitionist will be called to see what he has done 
"regardless of consequences." Every measure he pur- 
sues will embitter the enmity of opposing states. Eternal 
hatred will be engendered and taught in the nursery, 
drawn by the infant from the mother's breast, and instilled 
upon the mind of the youth in the first lessons of the 



64 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

father. "Carthago delenda est" — extermination to the 
rival state, would be written on the standards of a north- 
ern, and of a southern confederacy. And " the sword, 
once drawn," when will it be sheathed? ''Never,'' says 
an eminent organ of abolitionism, until "victory, entire 
victory is ours or theirs." This, intended by the excel- 
lent author as a rhetorical figure, will prove an awful 
reality, and abolitionists will be compelled to say, " This 
is our work." They did not mean it all. But it is one 
of the necessary ''consequences" of which they are now 
^'regardless." 



LETTER IX, 



To THE Rev. Professor Smyth, of Bowdoin College. 

Dear Sir, — Several communications published over 
your signature in the Mirror of April and May last, head- 
ed by my name as a text, have appeared to me, to demand 
a public notice and correction. 

You have called in question the validity of my argu- 
ments, and the correctness of my conclusions on .the 
points embraced in " the issue.^' I owe it, therefore, to 
myself to review and approve my positions, or confess my 
error. Then I owe it to you to communicate the result 
of this examination, because your general candor assures 
me that your mind is still open to the force of truth. Fi- 
nally, it is due to that portion of the public, who are en- 
quirers on the subject in discussion, and who may there- 
fore be influenced by what you and I have written. 

You have not questioned the numerical correctness of 
the religious statistics embraced in the issue respecting 
the slave population of South Carolina, but you attempt 
to show that they are " utterly valueless,^'' as proof of the 
religious privileges and improvement of the slaves. I ex- 
pect to convince you that you have utterly failed to make 
out your case, and I hope also, by the force of additional 
testimony, to procure your candid acknowledgement of 
your error. My letters to our esteemed brother McKeen 
were addressed to him through the press, because I fre- 
quently received from the North inquiries similar to those 
made by him, and because I thought the subject required 
that my answers should be public. 

" The issue" was the substance of an answer to seve- 
ral private letters received principally from abolitionists, 
who urged upon my consideration the "tremendous re- 



66 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

sponsibility" I had incurred by attempting, in those letters, 
to check the abolition cause. My views of " responsibili- 
ty" were presented in "the issue," and when thus embo- 
died, I felt it my duty to present them to the public, that 
they might be seen by others, whose opinions I might 
wish to influence, or to whom I might desire to vindicate 
my own. 

You thus perceive that I have not been entirely a vol- 
unteer in connecting my name with the subject of slave- 
ry, on which hardly any man, who speaks at this day, can 
hope to make himself understood, or to be candidly 
heard ; on which too, constituted as we are, it is not easy 
for any man to continue to speak with candor and impar- 
tiality. 

In what I now propose to say, it will be my steady 
endeavor to preserve the manner which I would approve 
in others. If in this I should fail, I shall regret it with as 
much pain as it can cause yourself or others. 

But proceeding to consider your arguments, I wish to 
relieve one point, — the only one, I believe ; on which you 
complain of the spirit of " the issue." I pronounced the 
resolution of Mr. Thompson, which was approved by the 
Anti-Slavery Society at their anniversary in May of last 
yeRT, false. ^^ False in point of fact, ''^ — I said, and still I 
say, To pronounce a ?nan false, is not only discourteous," 
but indecorous, rude. But to pronounce his statements 
false in point of fact, is neither. It does not necessarily 
implicate his moral character, and attaches blame to him 
only in proportion to his neglect of means to ascertain 
the truth. This is what I have done and no more. This 
is what I have proved. The degree of guilt to be attach- 
ed to those, who put forth this resolution, and those who 
justify it, I leave to others to determine. In connection 
with Mr. Thompson's name, I did indeed omit the last 
part of the assertion expressed by the words — " in point 
of fact" — but these words were intended and expected to 
be understood after having been once repeated. I more- 
over expressly declined to apply the charge of falsehood 
even to Mr. Thompson, while " charity that hopeth all 
things" could devise a way to avoid it. With this expla- 
r ition, I hope that particular point will be relieved. 



tETTERS ON SLAVERY* 67 

tn proof that my statistics are " utterly valueless" you 
adduce one class of evidence from three sources, — from 
Dr. Nelson, the Synod of Kentucky, and the Hon. J. G. 
Birney. And what do these v/itnesses testify ? Dr. Nel- 
son tells what he has seen in Missouri ; the Synod speaks 
of Kentucky ; and Mr. Birney, who is " incapable of 
falsehood," approved and voted for Mr. Thompson's reso- 
lution. 

So far as the two first witnesses are concierned, I have 
only to say, that as I have said nothing of Missouri or 
Kentucky, the evidence is not in point and cannot be ad- 
mitted. If I have sinned in this matter, the proof lies in 
South Carolina, and I decline a trial on facts brought 
from Kentucky or Missouri. If cited for trial there^ I 
shall prove an alibi. 

Let it be noticed that I am not here called upon to dis- 
sent from these respectable witnesses in the matter of 
their testimony, nor to oppose their views. Standing in 
their places, perhaps I should have seen and spoken as 
they have. I only say, that what they saw and testified 
to, in Kentucky and Missouri, they did not see in South 
Carolina. I might have rashly extended my assertion 
Over states I knew nothing of, and so have come within 
the compass of your proofs, — but I have not done it. I 
hope, therefore, you will plainly perceive that while you 
have admitted my arithmetic to be correct, your logic is 
entirely defective. But it may be said, the Synod infer 
that what is true in Kentucky on this matter must pervade 
the system every where else. This may do for an iyifer- 
ence in the absence of facts. They subvert it, as I will 
presently show. 

I have now only to dispose of Mr. Birney; " He was 
therc^'' and "voted for the resolution." And who is Mr. 
Birney ? He is " an honorable man" — but here he is 
placed as a witness on the stand. In this attitude, he is 
not privileged above other witnesseiij» I certainly cannot 
yield to his " high standing," the evidence of my senses, 
nor ray own claim to equal credit. But as the supporter 
of the resolution in question, Mr. Birney is placed on the 
same ground with Mr. Thompson, neither of whom, per- 
haps, were ever in South Carolina. They are, therefore, 

7 



68 LETTERS ON SLAVERY, 

Equally on trial for their veracity, which must abide Xh& 
truth or falsehood of the resolution. They are both char-- 
ged as criminals. You and your readers must judge in the 
sequel, how far they are entitled to credit. 

There are two other witnesses introduced by you tc- 
prove that my statements are "utterly valueless" — Mr. W.. 
B. Seabrook, and Mr. Thomas S. Clay. Mr. Clay is of-- 
fered to your readers as a clergyman, who, in a pamphlet 
published on the subject, has " urged upon the southern 
community the duty of giving relij»ious instruction to 
slaves." You will doubtless be gratified to learn that Mr, 
Clay is not a clergyman urging their diity upon others^ but 
himself a large planter, stating in his pamphlet what he is 
doing on his own plantation. You will, therefore, al- 
low me to refer you to a re-perusal of Mr. Clay's pam- 
phlet as a detail of the religious instruction of slaves on 
one plantation at least. This too-, you may receive as a 
specimen in whole or in part", of what is done on many 
others. If there are but few as faithful and thorough as 
Mr. Clay, still there are many prosecuting a similar plan. 

Mr. Seabrook is introduced as a strong witness to be 
relied on. He has " examined these plans in detail,"' 
and the Agricultural Society of St. Johns, Colleton, ha* 
published his Essay. On this grounti you introduce Mr: 
Seabrook, and his associates of the Agricultural Society. 
You say with apparent complacency ; " upon- tho testi- 
mony of these witnesses, we may surely rely with confi- 
dence ; they testify to what they know.'" That you may 
see what rules of evidence you have applied in the 
premises, I shall quote entire your extract from Mr. Sea- 
brook, and then hold up to your consideration some of tho 
astounding conclusions you have asked your readers to- 
admit in the argument. 

The extract says : — " That the slaveholder and his 
family should officiate as teachers, is so palpably objec- 
tionable, if it were practicable, in every light in which 
the suggestion can be viewed, that I need only observe, 
when the scene shall be exhibited of the people of South 
Carolina, tri-daily according to Mr. Clay, or weekly as 
recommended by the Committer of Synod, reading and 
explaining the Bible, and conversing with their servants 



I."ETTERS ON SLAVERY. 69 

^Ti the subject of the soul's immortality, the reign of fanat- 
icism and misrule will have commenced." 

" I object totally^ however, for the general reasons al» 
ready advanced, and for others that will readily suggest 
themselves, to the " preacher adapting a part of every 
sermon to ibeir intellectual wants," or "to the giving out 
one or two lines of a hymn =that they may join in the ex- 
'ercises." This is a device of the levellers, and too hete- 
rodox for the present state of public opinion." 

" Another modeof oemmimicaiingreligious information 
to the slaves, upon which Mr. Clay comments is, what he 
terms domestic, to be conducted by the resident planter 
'and his faniily. This mode must have been suggested to 
Mr. Clay, by a Tappanist. if friendly to the policy and 
perpetiiity of our institutions, it could not have been the 
.fruit of his own reflections." 

NoAv, on this extract, which you are pleased to terni 
"'evidence," you ca-H on your readei's to believe. " 1st. 
That the prf aching ichich the slaves of South Carolina hear 
in common icith their masters, is not adapted to their intel- 
lectual Lcajits, and that the present state of public opinion 
■will not tolerate its being made soy I am sure, sir, you will 
allow the humblest of your readers to pause at the chasm 
between the premises, and your conclusion. He searches 
in vain for any such " evidence" in the extract. The wri- 
ter of the Essay does indeed fur himself " object totally to 
the preacher adapting a part of every sermon to their 
(the slaves') intellectual wants, or lo the giving out one or 
two lines of the by m.n, that they may join in the exercises." 
Yet in all this, there is no alkision to what actually «a"c?07ic, 
and therefore, it furnishes no *' evidence" in point. What, 
then, u- actually done? On Mr. Clay's plantation pre- 
cisely that is dono, to which this witness objects. The 
same is done on many plantations in South Carolina, and 
often by most of the nnnisters, of all denominations with 
whom I am acquainted. 

On the " evidence"" furnished in this extract, you ask 
your readers to believe, 2dly ; That the reading and eco- 
plaining the Bible to the slaves in public meetings by the 
slaveholder and his faifiily, is as yet unknown V This 
cjanchision is of couise predicated onthe first paragraph m 



70 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

the extract. The writer there says : — "it is palpably ob- 
jectionable that the slaA^eholder and his family should 
officiate as teachers to the slaves." Where does he say 
it is a thing " as yet unknown V No where. Nothing like 
it. The Essay opposes Mr. Clay's plan, which is carried 
into effect by himself, and by many planters in South 
Carolina. And this is taken for " evidence" that the 
thing, which it opposes, has no existence, I am quite 
sure, Sir, that you could not have had the common rules 
of evidence before you when you drew these conclusions, 
and you will not insist that your readers should admit 
them. 

What, then, have you shown by this extract 1 You 
have shown precisely what I have urged before, that there 
is a difference of opinion among intelligent men of the 
South, who are themselves the slave owners, and who are, 
therefore, the only competent persons to dispose of the 
subject. What I ask is, that you will leave the argument 
to be conducted here ; that you will not embarrass it by 
awakening prejudices and exciting jealousies unnecessa- 
rily, and without any possible compensation. 

Mr. Seabrook is a distinguished citizen of South CarO' 
lina, and his opinions are worthy of high consideration. 
Let them have the influence they deserve. 1 will furnish 
the opinions of gentlemen equally excellent, who difl'er 
from him on the subject of giving religious instruction to 
the slaves. Let them also have their due influence. 
But in candor you must not adduce the opinion? of Mr. 
Seabrook or any other man, (perhnps too carelessly ex-* 
pressed) as deliberate and sworn testimony. I am sure 
Mr. Seabrook, would not be willing to have his veracity 
tried by the attitude you have assigned to him. I have 
no doubt the relioious instruction of our slave population 
will be permitted to go on, notwithstanding the partial 
check it has received by the action of ihe abolitionists. I 
believe, every real philanthropist at the South will be led 
to adopt the true distinctions, and unite as well in this 
most benevolent eftbrtto elevate and save our own heathen^ 
as to oppose fanaticism in all its forms. 

Finally, you introduce the teslim.ony of the Rev. C. C. 
Jones. Mr. Jones is a member of our Synod, a young 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. ^l 

toan of coinmanding talents and education, a large slavfe 
owner, who has declined the highest places in our church, 
to give himself entirely to the religious instruction of the 
slave population. He is a man of remarkable ingenuous- 
ness and candor, of great zeal in his objects, yet without 
extravagance. His testimony, therefore, is of the high- 
est value ; " //e testifies vchat he knows.'''' You quote him 
as follows : — " It is a solemn fact, ivhich wc must not conccaly 
that their [the slaves'') private and public religious instruc- 
tion forms no part of the aim of the owners generally^ 
That is true. And allow me to say, it seems to me sin- 
gular that an honest mind seeking for truth should find a 
necessary discrepancy between this testiniony and mine. 
" Gcntralhf the religious instruction of the slaves forms 
no part of the aim of the owners. Few but religious inexi^ 
and 7iot always they, make it their aim to instruct their 
slaves. Still ma?iy religious men do it, as Mr. Jones tells 
you elsewhere, and many irreligious men permit it, who 
do not make it their aim and are criminally negligent of 
their duty. Is the phraseology of Mr. Jones remarkable 
when employed in awakening the community to a much 
neglected duty 1 I think a review of this testimony will 
force you to confess, that although you may not be behind 
Mr. Jones in zeal for the welfare of the slaves, you have 
failed to practice his ingenuousness. 

Again, you quote from Mr. Jones, — " The number of 
professors of reUgion (among the slaves) is small, that 
can present a correct view of the plan of salvation. True 
religion, they are greatly inclined to place in professions, 
in forms, and ordinances ; and true conversion in dreams, 
visions, trances, and voices, and these they offer to church 
sessions as evidences of conversion. Sometimes princi- 
ples of conduct are adopted by church members at so 
much variance with the Gospel that the grace of God is 
turned into lasciviousness. No man knows the extent of 
their ignorance on the subject of religion, until he for 
himself makes special investigation." 

Is this an extraordinary picture in reference to the 
ignorant portions of the church, wherever found ? And 
must their ignorance and mental degradation, merely, ex- 
clude them from the kingdom of heaven ? Persons with- 

7* 



72 LETTERS ON SLAVERY, 

out mental culture or social religious instruction, generally, 
do not readily give a full and " correct view ot the plan 
of salvation," although they may give credible evidence 
of piety, and such persons every where are " greatly in-, 
clined to place true religion in forms and ordinances, and 
professions ; and true conversion in dreams, visions," &.C. 
It is not wonderful that there should '- sometimes^'' he found 
among them even self deceivers, who " turn the grace of 
God into lasciviousness." This deplorable state of things, 
like much else among more favored members, is charge- 
able to our criminal neglect, and is it competent or iair 
to pervert the ardent effort of Mr. Jones to awaken the 
church to greater fidelity to the blacks, into the means of 
checking that very effort 1 

That vou may feel the force of Mr. Jones' testimony 
on the particular jioint, to which you have wrested his ap- 
peal, 1 will give you his opinion as expressed to me in a 
letter now before me. " As to the evidence of piety, says 
he, ariGucr the negroes in connection with the churches, can- 
didly, when I consider the circumstances, I have reason to 
hope for as many of them, as of any other class of persons 
that I have been as intimately acquainted iciih.'''' 

Mr. Jones, in his missionary report for Liberty county, 
Georgia, says : — " In this district, where it is said there 
are 1500 persons suitable for Sunday school instruction, 
there are five schools, twenty-five teachers, and 250 scho- 
lars. Ten or twelve plantations have received from their 
owners, during the last year, religious instruction to a 
greater or less extent. A gentleman in this county gave 
fifty dollars for the instruction of the children on a plan- 
tation under his care, and another had service twice a 
week for his people half the year for which he paid a 
regular minister of the Gospel. Several individuals have 
authorized the employment of a suitable man for the in- 
struction of their plantations, six or eight in number. 
They offer $400 a year and board. The proper course of 
action has been adopted. Our brethren have not said, 
we are willing to have our people instructed, and then tes- 
tified the amount of that willingness by doijig nothing. 
But they have said, ' we are willing and anxious to have 
our people instructed, and to a suitable man w^e will give 



LETTERS Ox\ SLAVERY. 73 

$400 a year and board.' The county, as far as the influ- 
ence of the church extends, is divided into Districts, in 
each of which there is one or more colored watchmen 
and a white male member of the church. This white 
male member is required to keep a correct list of the 
colored members in his District ; to receive reports from 
the colored watchmen of the conduct and standing of the 
members once a month or once in two months ; to receive 
application for instruction, or for admission to the church; 
to notice cases for discipline, and at stated intervals make 
a general report to the Session. He is also required to 
hold occasional meetings with the colored members in his 
district. In addition to this arrangement, the church an- 
nually appoints a responsible colored man to exercise a 
general supervision over the colored members ; to act 
also as an exhorter ; to solemnize their marriages, and to 
perform their funeral services, and to report regularly to 
the church. As an evidence of the increase of feeling 
and effort on the subject of the religious instruction of the 
colored population, we state that more has been published 
and circulated on the general subject within the last two 
years, (1833-4) than in ten or twenty years preceding, so 
far as our information extends." 

From Savannah River a Missionary writes — " I visit 
eighteen plantations every two weeks ; preach twice or 
thrice on the Sabbath. The owners have built three good 
churches at their own expense, all framed ; 290 members 
have been added, and about 400 children are instructed 
every week." 

'• Some young men of the Baptist connection in Geor- 
gia, now in a course of theological study, expect to spend 
their lives in this field." 

In the Methodist church in South Carolina and Georgia, 
" there are about twelve or fftcen Missionaries in the field, 
and they stand prepared to enlarge that number indefi- 
nitely." 

The Diocess of South Carolina is not behind in this 
work. Rev. J. R. Walker, of Beaufort, says: — "There 
are now (1833) in my church fifty-seven colored commu- 
nicants, upon the whole well doing and consistent, and in 



74 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

the Sunday school two hundred and thirty-four, who regu- 
larly attend." 

Will you hear another witness ? A few weeks ago, I 
called on a planter in my neighborhood early in the morn- 
ing. As I approached the house, the family were assem- 
bling for prayer. I took my seat unobserved on the door 
step, unwilling to interrupt them or to be called on to lead 
in their devotions. After a pause of minutes the master 
says — " where is Cato V " He is gone to the lot," — was 
the reply. " We shall wait until Cato comes," — said the 
slaveholder. All was silence for the space of five or ten 
minutes when a little black boy passed in, and Cato was 
there. The exercises proceeded. The planter read the 
Bible, and explained it in a familiar manner to his slaves, 
asked them questions, sung an hymn, giving out the lines 
that they might join in the exercise. They then all knelt 
together in prayer. Is this a singular scene ? By no 
means. I can travel with you in the circle of my acquaint- 
ance in South Carolina, and introduce you to a similar 
scene every morning of every day in the year. 

I heard the voice of prayer and praise as I passed at 
evening the negro cabins on a rich man's plantation. I 
stepped aside, and found the slaves in their respective 
families attending, with apparent zeal, their family wor- 
ship. Is this singular ? By no means. I can travel 
with you, and introduce you to a similar scene every eve- 
ning of every day in the year. 

Believe me, sir, you are wrong, and I will furnish fur- 
ther proof of it presently. 



LETTER X. 



Rev. Professor Smyth : 

Dear Sir, — Besides the witnesses, which I have 
already examined, furnished by you to prove my state- 
ments " utterly valueless," you have introduced one 
other — the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia. You 
quote from a Report of their Committee as follows : — 

*' The influence of the negroes upon the moral and re- 
ligious interests of the whites is destructive in the ex* 
treme. We cannot go into special detail. It is unneces- 
sary. We make our appeal to universal experience. 
We are chained to a putrid carcase ; it sickens and de- 
stroys us. We have a millstone hanging about the neck 
of our society fo sink us deep in the sea of vice. Our 
children are corrupting from their infancy ; nor can we 
prevent it. Many an anxious parent, like the missionary 
in foreign lands, wishes that his children could be brought 
up beyond the reach of the corrupting influence of depra- 
ved heathen. Nor is this influence confined to mere child- 
hood. If that were all, it would be tremendous. But it 
follows us into youth, into manhood, into old age." 

" And when we come directly in contact with their de- 
pravity in the management of them, then come temptations, 
and provocations, and trials that unsearchable grace only 
can enable us to endure. In all our intercourse with 
them, we are undergoing a process of intellectual and 
moral deterioration, and it requires a most superhuman 
effort to maintain a high standing either for intelligence or 
piety." 

You come now, sir, with high authority. The Synod 
look upon, and the members occupy, the same field em- 
braced in my statements. I myself am a member of that 



76 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

Synod, was present when that Report was adopted, and 
voted for it. If, therefore, it is fairly in contradiction to 
my statements, it must prevail, since besides my own, it 
unites the testimony of our entire church. If on the 
other hand, I show you that I am in entire harmony with 
myself and my Synod, your candor will acquit me, and, 
in that acquittal, admit the force of my former statements. 

The religious instruction of the slaves, which had, for 
many years, engaged the devoted attention of individuals, 
had also been armually before the Synod as a standing 
subject of deep interest and duty. In 1833, it was brought 
up by this Report of a Committee, previously appointed. 
The earnest object of the Synod was to awaken the pub- 
lic attention to a consideration of duty in respect to the 
spiritual ignorance, destitution and wants of the slave 
population. Under these circumstances, the Report was 
prepared. It commences with the proposition, " That 
there is a numerous and important class of persons — we 
may say — a distinct race of people, within our bounds, in 
perishing need of the Gospel, accessible, and wholly de- 
pendant upon us, to whom we have not imparted it, at 
least in such measure as their necessities and our duty re- 
quire." Next, it proceeds to show that the slaves are 
" destitute of the privileges of the Gospel,"— that is, they 
have not a suitable ministry, accommodations, encourage- 
ments, &c. It then sets forth " our duty to these heathen 
among ourselves." " We do not deny, says the Report, 
that many enjoy the means of grace, that there are a 
large number of professing Christians among them — but 
it is, at best, a day of small things : and although our 
assertion is abroad, we believe that in general it will be 
found to be correct." Such is the Report in its positions 
and plans. 

Now, sir, to try that Report in its harmony with my 
statements, take the 1CO,CCO souls in the city of New- 
York, said to be " destitute of the privileges of the Gos- 
pel," a large portion of whom, perhaps can neither read 
nor write. Let the Synod of New York attempt to set 
forth their destitution, ignorance and perishing condition, 
and the " duty of the church to these heathen among 
themselves." Would not the general language of our Rg" 



Betters on slavery. 77 

port be applicable ? And yet they are not absolutely 
" deprived of the means of grace," and some among them 
may betray a spirit of piety, struggling through their igno- 
rance, superstitions, and popish bondage. 

Let, now, this Report be taken by a Temperance So- 
ciety, and would they not employ all its essential features^ 
in speaking of the whole class of drunkards, including all 
moderate drinkers, many of whom are in the church? In 
some respects, also, in which the language of the Report 
has been asserted to conflict with my statements, it will 
apply with equal truth to our white population in general. 
They, to an alarming extent, are destitute of a suitable, 
" regular ministry," — " of sufficient room in churches for 
their accommodation," — and " of free access to the Scrip- 
tures," by ability to read, — the vei-y particulars, in which 
the Report represents the negroes as " destitute of the 
privileges of the Gospel." 

But it is objected that I have said there are 45,000 
" credible''^ professors of religion among the slaves of South 
Carolina. By " credible,''^ I understand those who are in 
regular standing in the church of Christ. But my charity 
judges the religious character of their ignorance, which 
connects, often, with their religious experience,—" dreams, 
visions, &c. "There are diversities of operation but the 
same spirit." 

It seems, then, that the Report is not nece^^an/y contra- 
dictory to my statements. As I have said before, it is a 
view of what we have do7ie compared with duly. My 
statements are a view of what we have done compared 
with nothing. The object of one was to press that duty 
where it rested ; the other to correct foreign misappre- 
hensions. When fairly expoimded, both are true in point 
of facts, and harmonious with each other. 

To show that the object of this Report as now ex- 
plained was prominent in the attention of the Synod, and 
progressive in accomplishment, I will give you brief ex- 
tracts from the Narratives of the state of relifrion for three 
successive years. In 1833, the Synod in their Narrative 
say, — " We rejoice to find that increasing attention is paid 
to it (the religious instruction of negroes) on the part of 
many, who are largely interested as owners in this class 



t^ LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

of our population, and that there is an increasing disposi- 
tion, on their part, to receive and invite instruction for 
these heathen in our own land." In 1834, the Narrative 
(Says : — " Increasing efforts have been made, especially 
within the bounds of the Presbytery of Georgia, to im- 
part religious instruction to the negroes." In 1835, the 
Synod say in their Narrative^ — " Even the religious in- 
struction of our slave population, entirely suspended in 
some parts of the country through the lamented interfe- 
rence of the abolition fanatics, has proceeded with almost 
unabated diligence and steadiness of purpose through the 
length and breadth of our Synod." It seems, then, by 
the testimony of Synod that slave instruction is a subject 
of general and increasing attention throughout our churches. 

The perusal of this Report of Synod, and also Mr. 
Jones's Report on the moral and religious condition of the 
colored population must have convinced you that we en- 
joy at the South " liberty of speech and of the pre ss^"* — that 
we are not afraid to tell men their duty even on the sub- 
ject of slavery, — that we can do it, — that we do it. That 
you cannot come here and do it, must not, cannot surprise 
you. The wonder is that you are not satisfied that others 
are permitted to do it. 

The Report of that committee has been published in 
newspapers and pamphlets, and extensively circulated. A 
document of similar directness and energy on the same 
subject was also published in 1833 by Mr. Jones. Both 
of these had a wide circulation and exerted a great influ- 
ence. Several others of like character have been pub- 
lished by Presbyteries and individuals with happy effect. 

Now, my dear sir, while all this has been doing at the 
South, you will be surprised to hear that there are men, 
who have been directly employed in subverting this whole 
scheme of practical benevolence. You will be shocked 
to know, that while this very Report was silently produ- 
cing its effect on the'public mind, and working a great and 
salutary change, other hands were employed in an open 
enterprise to paralyze its influence. Your benevolence, I 
am assured, will be moved at this recital, and your indig- 
nation will burn to know and expose to public reprobation 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY, 79 

those miserable men. I seem to hear you say, — " where 
are the wretches ?" 

"Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur." 

" Thou art the many The abolitionists have done this ; 
with the best of motives, doubtless, and therefore inno- 
cently ; — in ignorance, and therefore pardonable. But 
now they know. 

Thus, sir, in an examination of your proofs adduced 
to show my statements " utterly valueless,^^ have I not 
fairly pinned the label on your proofs? I have shown 
that the testimony of Dr. Nelson and the Synod of Ken- 
tucky relate to a different matter, except by inference, 
and that inference is subverted by facts. They are like 
the witness, who saw a murder, but it was not the murder 
charged. Mr. Clay, summoned to your aid as a clergy- 
man, comes up in the character of a Georgia planter, and 
testifies point blank against you. Mr. Seabrook is next 
called. I have shov/n that you adduce his assumed doc- 
trines and opinions and have substituted them for testimony 
to facts. Mr. Jones' testimony, adduced by you, I have 
shown to be partial in its application, and powerless in 
aid of your argument — while I have on the other hand, 
brought his direct testimony in point to support my state- 
ments. Mr. Birney, classified in this arrangement with 
Mr, Thompson, rises or falls with the truth or falshood of 
the resolution. The Report of the Synod of South Caro- 
lina and Georgia has been shown, I trust, to be sufficient- 
ly in harmony with my statements, which I hope you are 
now satisfied are strictly correct. 



LETTER XI. 



Rev. Ppofessor Smyth: 



Dear Sir, — The arguments employed in your first 
communication, based on the truth of my statements, are 
shown to have been used ironically^ by your subsequent 
attempt to invalidate those statements. If I have suc- 
ceeded, as I think I have, in maintaining my ground, your 
first positions are redeemed from derision, and again de- 
mand serious consideration. You there argue " that 
45,000 religious slaves in South Carolina must be fitted 
for freedom, and surely their controlling influence on the 
others must render it safe for all of them to be admitted 
to that boon." Admit all you ask — what then? You 
have proved that the slaves are fitted for freedom — proved 
it to yourself- — proved it, if you please, to me, — but you 
have 7iot proved it to their masters. That proof must come 
from the '•'■Maine Anti-Slavery Society" in the practical 
application of their noble resolution to ^^ liberate all their 
opponents luill educate." My complaint against you is, 
that to every moral efl^ect, the action of the abolitionists 
only embarasses the subject, and prevents, or defers their 
freedom. You may now dispose of your argument as you 
think will best relieve your difficulty. 

If you can influence the owners to give freedom to their 
religious slaves, I certainly will be the last man to object. 
I think many of them would, under suitable circumstances, 
make good free men. Many are suitably educated for 
freedom now, and all with proper attention, might perhaps 
be so educated in a short time. But how will you efiect 
their freedom ? I know of only three ways, in which it 
can be done. First, by purchase. But slaves are now 



"LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 81 

held at a very high price, and I greatly fear that the be- 
nevolence of the Maine Anti-Slavery Society, as express- 
ed in their noble resolution, is in advance of their funds. 
Another way to free the negroes is to make open war upon 
the masters, and gain for them libert}^ in a fair fight. 
This, I presume, is not seriously contemplated by the 
abolitionists generally, although some have imprudently 
declared their readiness for it. The last, and only prac- 
ticable method is to induce the holders to give freedom 
to their slaves. Now, to this end, the whole action of the 
Anti-Slavery Society is directly opposed. Every thing 
you have done has prejudiced this object. If you had 
been the slaves' worst enemies, you could have done no 
more. I doubt whether the history of this whole contro- 
versy can furnish one instance, in which the abolitionists 
have gamed to their cause one of the advocates of slavery. 
Until this is done, nothing effective is done. On the 
contrary, you have confirmed thousands of slaveholders ia 
their reputed errors. 

The abolitionists seem to me not to be satisfied with 
what they can do. They must see what they can not do. 
I knew a man once, who took for his motto, " Some 
things ca7i be done as well as others.'''' With this he set 
out to see how far he could leap. This might have done 
very well, but he could never be satisfied until he proved 
how far he could not leep. He was never satisfied till 
he broke his neck ? 

We can, my dear sir, do much for the benefit of the 
slave. Let us do what we can, and not prevent all the 
good which is practicable, by assuming that every thing 
is noio practicable, or practicable by us, which we may 
think desirable to be done, or believe to be right in itself. 
St. Paul even said, "all things are lawful for me, but all 
thing are not expedient." That which is lawful i« not 
always expedient, and that which is right is not always 
practicable. Whatever is wrong is inexpedient ; but that 
which is right is not always expedient. It is right that 
I should have my horse which has been stolen from me, 
but it may not be expedient for me to assert that right 
while the thief is holding a loaded pistol at my head. It 
is right that the thief should be punished, but not expe- 



82 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

dient for me to attempt the punishment in the premises. 
If not expedient it is not right, for my life is of more value 
to me and my family than my horse. Thus, my dear sir, 
if you will forbear, and endeavor by kindness to gain ac- 
cess and do good to the master and the slave, you may 
live to receive the blessing of both, but by taking the aho- 
litio7i leap, you place yourself beyond the power to benefit 
either. 
y Your whole course of action defeats the professed ob- 
ject, to relieve the slave. It rivets his fetters, abridges 
his privileges, increases his burdens. It unites the south- 
ern emancipationists with all others against them. The 
practical effect is to alienate the North and South, and 
to divide the Union. This, which is evidently the prac- 
tical issue, is now the avowed object of many. 

This is inevitable in the prosecution of your plans. 
The whole effect is a political one, exciting the worst 
passions, and the most inveterate jealousies, leading to 
disunion. You say it ought not to produce such lesults. 
We see, however, it does, it will, it must. In effect, it 
simply demands a reconsideration of the original com- 
pact, by renewing one of the most vexing questions set- 
tled in the compromise. The South is united in support 
of their own institutions. The abolitionists are united 
against them. The contest now is to gain the great mass 
of the people at the North, intelligent and patriotic, who 
have hitherto opposed these mad schemes. They will 
turn the scale. If they maintain their ground, all may 5 et 
be quiet. But let the abolitionist gain them, and the 
ground will be changed. The line will be drawn from 
east to west, and the contest will be between the North 
and the South. 

Such, sir, is "the issue." And now, if, as some says, 
it " deserves little regard," — if it " cannot have much in- 
fluence on the well informed," — if it " betrays great ignor- 
ance of the true ground of controversy," — if it "gives the 
religious statistics of South Carolina, the city of New- 
York and of Maine to prove that the slav.-ry of the South 
involves no sin," — if it "is the apologist of slavery, or of 
mobs and violent acts of lawless men ; — then, indeed, I 
*' know not what spirit I am off," nor what I affirm. But 



IfiTTERS ON SLAVERlP. ^S 

if " the issue" shows the regular and necessary result of 
the measures now pursued by the abolitionists ; if the 
necessary action of those measures is to curse the slave 
with a heavier bondage, and to throw us back into the 
original elements of dissevered states, with a spirit of bit- 
terness and jealousy that shall beget eternal enmity,— if 
this be its point, then " the issue"'' is precisely what I in- 
tended it should be ; — it presents the true issue to the 
deliberate consideration of those who are now urged to 
join the abolition cause ; it presents the naked question, 
"the true ground of controversy" between the abolitionists 
and their opposers, and will be contemplated by few with- 
out emotion. 

Let none be so blind as to suppose that if the abolition 
cause, as now made, goes down, the fetters of the slave 
are irreversibly rivetted. The reverse is the fact. Noth- 
ing but the defeat of the abolitionists can prevent the 
worst of evils to the slave. The real friends of the slaves 
are at the South. Here, the argument must be made. 
Here, by consent of the master, the slave must be freed, if 
freed at all. When that, which is considered by the 
slaveholders a piratical crusade against their property, 
shall cease at the North, then the argument will be re- 
vived at the South, in our halls of legislation, and by slave- 
holders themselves. And the success of the argument 
here must give freedom to the slave, or he is irreversibly 
a slave, unless the "figure" is dropt and the "sword is 
drawn" in reality. g 

This, sir, is what I fear, what I deprecate, what as a 
citizen, a parent, a Christian, especially a Christian min- 
ister, I will ever oppose with my voice, my influence, my 
prayers, with my latest breath. This is the real point 
embraced in " the issued If the attitude in which I have 
endeavored to place that issue, shall lead to the clear ap* 
prehension and deliberate consideration of it, I shall not 
fear a prevalence of the abolition doctrine. 

There is, however, one position you have taken in re- 
gard to the resolution of the Anti-Slavery Society offerer 
by Mr. Thompson, to which, perhaps you still think ) 
ought to accord my assent. You say, " the resolution doe^ 
not by any fair principle of interpretation affii'm any thiri^ 

8* 



84 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

more than a general fact. But it does affirm that as a 
general fact,, as a hody^ the slaves in this Christian land are 
left to perish itithout the Bible and the miiiistry of the Gos- 
pel. And I ask if we are not fully borne out in this state- 
ment by the testimony of the Synod of Kentucky ^ 

If a general fact may thus be stated, and even if this 
could be fairly shown to be one of them, still I ask, in 
my turn, if it becomes the Anti-Slavery Society, at such 
a time, and on such a subject^ when engaged in a warm 
contest with the South, to speak thus wide of the excep- 
tions in the case 1 

Suppose we should hold a meeting here and Resolve, — 
" that the practice of suffering one sixth part of the white 
population of the North to perish destitute of the ministry 
of the Gospel is inconsistent with the profession of zeal 
for the conversion of the world," — would not the general 
fact be numerically correct ? Undoubtedly, But Avould 
it be wise ? Would it do any good 1 Would it not be 
regarded as invidious^ sectional, unjust, especially if ac- 
companied wiih a phillipic against the North, full of exag- 
geration, uttered by a foreigner 1 

Again, suppose we should form a resolution of like 
import against the manufacturing populaticn of the North, 
and insist that although they are constitutionally protected, 
yet the business and employment are wrong in principle 
and must be abandoned. You ask for Scripture authority, 
as wx claim no civil power to interfere. ^V'e take the 
broad and indisputable ground that no man can be at lib- 
erty to pursue any business which necessarily interferes 
with moral purity and jeopards his salvation or that of 
those employed in his business. You admit the principle 
but deny its application, and refer to high Scripture au- 
thority. " Tubal Cain was an instructor of every arti- 
ficer of brass and iron," and Paul was a maker of tents, 
&c. We still argue that manufactures are necessarily of 
immoral tendency, and the inmates of those establish- 
ments depraved. In proof of this, v.-e introduce some 
Mr. Thompson from Great Britain, who bears his pub- 
lic testimony in Charleston to the fact ; and docr;ments are 
introduced from the Synod of Ulster in Ireland to prove 
that according to their personal observation in their Dis- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 85 

trict it is so, and what is true there must be true every- 
where else. Here is the end of the demonstration. We 
write under Mr. Thompson's argument, Q. E. D. and 
there is no more to be said. What now are your assu- 
rances that in all your manufacturing establishments there 
are Bible Societies and a staged ministry ? The thing is 
proved. There is the testimony of the : /nod of Ulster; 
and there is Mr. Thompson's speech. You are an inter- 
ested witness. You live at the North. You were "alto- 
gether born in sin," or have lived there " eight or ten 
years," — "just long enough to become so familiar with the 
loathsome features of manfactories, that they cease to 
offend." All j^ou can say, therefore, only " proves the 
blinding influence, under which you have been placed." 
It has a very "blinding influence" to see both sides of a 
subject. 

Or suppose we should hold a great southern convention 
at Charleston, and adopt a similar resolution in regard 
to commerce and the 1,000,000 tons of shipping and the 
50.000 seamen employed in American ships. The same 
course of reasoning might be presented on both sides ; — 
but we make out our moral demonstration and require you 
to seal up your ports, and burn your shipping on your do- 
mestic hearths, and take home your sailors. Every fam- 
ily can manufacture its ovvm clothing and articles of 
domestic use — and as for our cotton, why let England 
come and get it. She may take care of her own sins in 
this as well as in her slavery. She is a magnanimous 
nation and our Tnoiher country will no doubt do right to ail 
parties. Mr. Thompson says so. 

Now, sir, without any collusion, suppose all this should 
literally occur. What then ? Would not the Yankees 
say that the South were only jealous of their growing 
prosperity, that it was simply a traffiic opposing spirit. 
Would they not assign the worst of motives to those who 
thus should invade their purse strings, and would tl cy not 
unite as one man, all parties, to put down this dictation ? 
Could there be any othereffectthanadisastrousone,if such 
a course were prosecuted, and the South should become 
united in it 1 Would you not call it madness, the fruit of 
wicked and bitter jealousy, envy and revenge ? Such i^ 



86 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

the effect of the resolution in question of the Anti-Slave* 
ry Society and similar operations. They awaken sec- 
tional prejudices and unite the South against a northern 
interference. They are assigned to the worst of motives, 
and create a reaction in favor of the very system which 
you aim to everthrow. You shut yourselves out from any 
further salutary moral influence on the South. You can 
approach the South on this subject no more, and no nearer, 
and with no more eftecn than the South could approach 
the North in the cases just supposed, and in reference to 
the subjects there brought to view. The South is just as 
much convinced that the action at the North on the sub- 
ject of slavery is the dictate of unworthy motive, as the 
North could be, were the opposite cases supposed to lite- 
rally transpire. Some indeed attribute it to fanaticism, 
while others pronounce it the effect of envy, jealousy or 
political ambition. 

We often lose much, my dear sir, by resting on one 
side, and refusing to change our positions. In this way it 
often happens that good and conscientions men become very 
inveterate in error. They knoic that they are right, even 
when in egregious error. This we have seen in men as 
good, liberal and conscientious as ourselves. And this 
should always make us extremely jealous of ourselves 
with a godly jealousy. The same shield may be both 
brass and iron according to the position from which the 
witness views it, — one side may be brass, the other iron. 
It may also for the same reason be either opaque or bright. 
One side may present a sombre bronze, the other a pol- 
ished mirror dazzling with its brightness. A change of 
position presents the difference, and of course would en- 
tirely change the testimony of a witness respecting the 
same object. So it may be with the subject of slavery as 
well as others. I testify to what I have seen. Do any,, 
who have occupied the same position testify differently ? 
We should be slow to condemn one another, for differ- 
ences for Avhich a reason may be found. 

Again, I have been giving testimony to one class of 
facts. There are others, which should not be overlooked 
in formins an estimate of the real condition of the slave.. 
Here is not a singular exercise of authority without op- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 87 

pression, of poverty without suffering, of ignorance with- 
out vice. They are all found in this slave country. But 
what I affirm is, that there is no greater amount of op- 
pression, suffering and vice than exist generally among 
the extreme poor, and less than are found among the Afri- 
can race in almost all other conditions. You have, in one 
of your communications, almost as a matter of course, run 
into the usual strain of declamation against the tears, and 
sweat, the whips and clanking chains, cennected with 
slavery. I say again they find but limited application 
here, and within the circle of my personal observation. 
My most favorable representations refer to the condition of 
those slaves employed in domestic labors, and those on the 
smaller plantations. They substantially apply, however, 
to all within my acquaintance. The greatest abuses are 
almost always on the larger plantations. Here, as every 
where, the rich are apt to oppress the poor, and " fall into 
temptation and a snare and many hurtful lusts, that drown 
men in destruction and perdition," 



LETTER XII. 



Rev. Professor Smyth : 



Dear Sir, — Although I have granted your argument 
going to prove that the religious slaves of South Carolina 
ought to be "immediately, unconditionally and forever 
emancipated," in order that I might thus show you some of 
the difficulties in which you would find yourself involved, 
still I think there are many objections to your demand, 
besides the resistance of their owners, which you would 
meet at the threshold. And although you have made the 
demand with great confidence, and " without fear of con- 
tradiction," I will venture to suggest a few opposing 
thoughts for your grave consideration. 

The general positions, from which your reasonings 
proceed, may be resolved into these two : First, the slaves 
have an original, inalienable right to their freedom ; — and 
secondly, in view of other sentiments advanced, you as- 
sume that these 45,000 religious slaves are prepared for 
freedom. Some of your principles I entirely reject, and 
much of your reasoning and conclusions need to be modi- 
fied. 
. You say that " liberty is the birth-right of every human 
' being." That is true, but not absolutely. Now I say 
dependence is the birth-right of every human being. Into 
this state we are all born. Some never recover them- 
selves from it. This dependence is of difi'erent degrees. 
So is liberty. All are not free alike and cannot be, even 
should the Liberator succeed in destroying all civil gov- 
ernments as " so many conventional expedients to gratify 
human selfishness, retaliation and power." No state of 
nature has brought to men full liberty, perfect indepen- 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. BQ 

dence of one another. Nor can it. Your principle, as a mere 
abstraction, is worth nothing. Carry it through the whole 
theory of governments, and it is an abstraction still. The 
moment you apply it, it becomes a practical rule, and as 
such, must be adapted to the constitution of man. If you 
can learn nothing in the practice of government, you are 
driven to the positions of Mr. Garrison,.and that is anarchy. 
Is there no slavery there ? 

There are perhaps 20,000 members of the Christian 
church in the United States, yet in the minority. Can it 
be possible that these 20,000 of Christ's family on earth, 
who will reign witli him forever, should be unfit to exer- 
cise the rights of freemen, the rights to acquire and hold 
property, to vote, to marry, and give themselves in mar- 
riage, to hold public office 1 None will deny they are as 
well qualified to exercise all these rights as the slaves 
generally are. Ought they not to be "immediately, un- 
conditionally, and forever emancipated ?" By the princi- 
ples of the Liberator, they ought to be. Who would con- 
trol a free-born mind? Who, but himself, shall determine 
wheri he shall exercise his rights ? True, an old book 
says "children obey your "parents" — and "let every soul 
be subject unto the higher powers — whosover resisteth 
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." But then the 
same book also says, "servants, obey in all things your 
masters." But these are antiquated notions in modern 
codes, and are only " so many conventional expedients to 
gratify human selfishness, retaliation and power." For- 
give me, dear sir, for following so far the legitimate con- 
sequences of the principles you advocate, or excuse in the 
advocacy of others. I tremble at the temerity of the 
times, at the recklessness of men, who have not been 
wont to throw a loose rein on hazardous and doubtful ex- 
periment. Although not old, I am sure I have seen the 
day when such sentiments in the church in New Eng- 
land would meet with universal execration, and bring 
down on their advocates any thing but patronage and sup- 
port. 

Again, here are thousands of Christian men in the 
United States, lately arrived, who are foreigners, not per- 
mitted either to hold public office or to vote, and who suf- 



90 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

fer other disabilities as aliens. Ought they not to be 
"immediately, unconditionally forever emancipated?" — 
Why should they be restrained of their liberty? Why 
disfranchised 1 Why, in any respect, under disabilities 
to acquire or hold property ? Are they not men, whose 
" birth-right is liberty ?" 

Was not Abraharn a slaveholder ? Were not the chosen 
people of God extensively, slaveholders 1 Were not the 
early Christians, some of them, slaveholders 1 And ought 
they not "immediately, unconditionally and forever to 
have emancipated slaves V^ Ought they not to have been 
taught so to do by those, on whom they depended for in- 
struction in duty ? Yet is it not quite singular that they 
were taught how to treat their slaves, and were not taught 
to emancipate them "immediately." If it be said that the 
sabbatical year and the jubilee brought them their free- 
dom, this very argument proves the existence of slavery, 
and it also proves that '■^immediate emancipation''' was not 
THE TRUE DOCTRINE. And notwithstanding these sep- 
tennial liberations, there always were slaves under the 
Jewish polity. 

Paul is very explicit, not only in enforcing obedience 
on the slave, but in opposing the doctrine of abolitionism. 
Hear him to Timothy vi. 1 — 5: "Let as many servants 
as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of 

all honor and do them service . These things, 

teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise he is 

proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and 
strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, 
evil surmisings, perverse disputings, &c." See also Titus 
ii. 9—14. 

To whatever extent we might agree on some parts of 
this subject, we differ, " toto celo^'' in the application of 
your principle, that " liberty is the birth-right of every 
human being." And yet you perceive that I do not differ 
more widely from you than you differ from Abraham, and 
the other patriarchs, and ancient men of God. Not more 
than you differ from Paul and Peter, and Him, who taught 
them to teach others. 

You affect to despise the liberality of the South in the 
cause of Christian benevolence ; while they " bring their 



Letters on slavery. 91 

gifts to thealtar,^^ "wrung," you say, "from the tears and 
sweat of the slave." And did the Jews leave their lambs 
and new wine at the altar, and first go and emancipate 
their slaves before they offered their gifts ? Did those of 
Macedonia and Achaia, before they forwarded their con- 
tributions to Jerusalem ? Abraham, I believe, sometimes 
made an offering to the Lord, " wrung," doubtless, " from 
the tears and the sweat of the slaves," which were "born 
in his house, ox bought with his money." Yet Abraham, my 
dear sir, was blest, and he was made a blessing. He was 
blest by Melchisedec, that eminent type of Christ, priest 
of the most high God, — blest in the very act of paying to 
him, as a religious offering, a "tenth part of all," ^^ ivrung 
from the tears and sweat of his slaves ;" yea, and that 
offering, the spoils of a battle, ^vhich Abram ^ad just 
gained over Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with 
him, at the expense of the "tears and sweat" and blood 
of those very slaves. More than all this, Abraham was 
blessed of God as a master, commanding his children and 
household : and who shall curse him, whom the Lord has 
blest ? Other slaveholders, his successors, were blessed 
of God. Slaveholders in later times were blessed of God, 
taught by holy men, who were inspired and sent for that 
purpose. Slaveholders now are blessed of God; yea, some 
of them are made a blessing to others, to their slaves, to 
the church, to the world. And who is he, that will pro- 
nounce the curse on those, whom the Lord has blest? 

But religious slaves you think must be prepared for free- 
dom, and therefore, their freedom may be demanded. Not 
so fast, my dear sir. I cannot admit that. They may be 
prepared to do well as free men, and still a state of slavery 
may be better for them. This opinion has been adopted 
by some slaves themselves, who after a trial have return- 
ed to their masters, begging the privilege to be taken again 
under their protection. 



LETTER Xfir. 



Rev. Professor Smyth : 

Dear Sir, — You express your surprise that in the 
premises I have made out a case no more favorable for 
the slave, You say of me — "I expected him to affirm 
that the slave in South Carolina at least, is not. either by 
penal enactments or the general practice of the master, 
excluded from all knowledge of letters, and by necessary 
consequence, from all direct access to it. I expected he 
would have shown us the home of the slave, the family 
assembled around the domestic altar, the book of God open 
before them, and the Christian father reverently reading 
therefrom to his listening household. And as a proof, 
which might be known of all men, I expectedhim to declare 
that in the recent effort to supply every family in our land 
with a Bible, the poor slave, in this great work of mercy, 
was not of necessitity passed by. But does Mr. Baily 
furnish any such evidence as this ? No. All that he 
brings in support of his affirmation is, that the slaves of 
South Carolina are less destitute of the volume of revela- 
tion than five million Catholics of Ireland, and that to a 
great extent, they receive the pure word by oral imstruction." 
Now, my dear sir, however gratifying it might have 
been to me to fulfil your expectations to the utmost, I ara 
sure you Avill neither hold me responsible for the failure, 
nor seriously pretend that I have not redeemed my pledge. 
I have, at least, done all that I proposed to do when I 
bring in support of my afirmation, proof that the slaves of 
South Carolina are less destitute of the volume of revela- 
tion than the Catholics of Ireland ; and that to a great extent, 
they receive the pure word hy oral instruction^ The first 
part of this proof was intended to show that Mr. Thomp- 
son was looking at a " woie" through a " beam ;" and the 
last part was adduced to prove that the slaves of South 



Lt;TTERS ON SLAVERY. 93 

Carolina, although less favored than most of us, might de- 
sire, were still furnished with the best kind of instruc- 
tion, the pure word by oral instruction. 

Passing any comparist)n of our slaves with the free 
blacks of New England, or with the poor of other coun- 
tries, in which it perhaps might be shown that we are not 
'• sinners above all," — I deem it proper to call your atten- 
tion, Professor Smyth, to the subject of oral instructiony 
so often made the object of sneer, but in the enjoyment of 
which, I say our slaves have the best kind of instruction ; 
and w^ere you to furnish them with all oth^r, omitting this, 
they still would lack the best. 

How prone we are to slight, and undervalue, and ne- 
glect the pvivikges we have, in a vain impatience for those 
we shall never attain ! Like fretful children, we dash the 
full cup from our lips because, though w^holesome, it is not 
filled with luxuries to the surfeit. But surely, if any 
doubt the value of oral instruction, it will not be called in 
question by a college Professor. You know, sir, that it 
is the approved way, in which the greater part of the 
most valuable instruction is, and always has been impart- 
ed, more efficient, and more valuable than any other, per- 
haps than all other. The living instructor presents truth 
the most clearly, and ahvays with explanation, if need 
be ; he aw^akens thought, and furnishes the most power- 
ful incentives to keep the mind awake. It always has 
been, and ahvays must be principally relied upon as the 
great instrument of education. Why then should it be 
counted as a thing of naught, then and then only, when 
it is brought to the relief of the slave, to whom it is tre- 
bly valuable and peculiarly suited ? Can you tell, sir ? 
Why this inveterate opposition to his most efficient in- 
struction in the most efficient way? Jesuitical cunning 
might be suspected of concealing its deadly enmity under 
such a ruse, but with those honest minds, who are em- 
ployed in decrying our labors, and interrupting our benev- 
olent plans for the instruction of the slaves, a just liberali- 
ty has very properly given it the name of fanaticism. 

Do you know the way, sir, in which the instruction of 
our slaves is conducted 1 Permit me to give you as a 
specimen, a brief account of the school which was held 
lander my superintendance the last year. The blacks 



94 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

were assembled in the church immediately after the after- 
noon service. They were divided into classes of from 
four to six, with an intelligent teacher to each class. 
The text book is Jones' doctrinal catechism, which com- 
prises a full system of theological instruction, with a 
practical application of the doctrines, accompanied with 
Scripture proofs. The teacher first states the proposition 
or doctrine ; each one of the class repeats it until it is 
fixed in the mind. They are then questioned and con- 
versed with until they are made to understand the terms 
of the proposition. The proof text from the pure icord of 
God is then repeated until they commit it to memory vei^- 
hatim. Then, comes its practical application. At the 
close, the superintendent recapitulates the lesson, with 
practical instructions, and exhortation, singing, and 
prayer. This lesson is the subject of their meditation 
during the week, and of their recitation on the next Sab- 
bath — when they receive a new lesson as before. Some 
of my reasons for regarding this as the best kind of in- 
struction for them, and far better than a reading ability, I 
will now state. First, it interests them. This proves to 
be the fact. The school, the conversation, the mutual 
comparison of thought, conflict of opinion under wise and 
competent teachers gain their attention, and interest them.. 
Secondly, it excites the mind, awakens thought and keeps- 
that attention alive. The lesson now taught is to be re- 
cited the next Sabbath. Each is anxious to understand 
it. It becomes a subject of conversation through the 
week, at evening, morning, in the house, in the field, in 
the little groups that assemble at a leisure hour. I have 
been deeply interested to find them through the week 
seeking explanation from their masters, mistresses or 
children of the family, on the absorbing subject of their 
next Sabbath lessons. If the practical effect of this 
plan could be ftdly known, I do not entertain a doubt that 
it would disarm the opposition of the abolitionists as well 
as of the wicked men, who oppose it here. I have never 
known it opposed here, Avhen fully understood, except by 
rank infidels, and "for the Gospel's sake."^ 

I firmly believe that if many Christians, privileged and 
lettered, whose Bibles lie neglected, could be reduced to 
an entire dependance on oral instruction, they would soon 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 95 

advance in religious knowledge and experience. How 
many there are in our refined society, yea in the church 
of Christ, who depend entirely on the oral instructions of 
the Sabbath, who never open their Bibles from one Sab- 
bath to the next ! How extensively this is the fact, espe- 
cially among the poor, and laboring classes, every atten- 
tive pastor is able with a bleeding heart to testify. I am 
not decrying letters. I only say, and say confidently, 
that in oral religious instruction, our slaves have the best. 
I do not say that it would be undesirable they should 
read the Bible, bat I do confidently say, that reading 
it as a substitute for their present instructions, would be a 
calamity, a loss to them. Here, they have the pure word 
of God, the most important part of it, proof texts, trea- 
sured in their memories, with a commentary, the best com- 
mentary apprehended to each text. The great doctrines 
are few and simple. Children may understand them. 
The rules of life are reduced in the Scriptures, to very 
few propositions. Better have them understood and ap- 
plied, than laboring libraries, and lumbering tomes of spe- 
culative learning. 

Oral instruction is competent to lead in the way of 
salvation. There was no Bible, nor any portion of a 
Bible — unless Genesis is supposed to have been compiled 
from preexisting documents — until Moses was called A. 
M. 376.3. All this time, religious truth was communicated 
solely by oral instruction. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
trained up their families, and their slaves in the fear of 
God. They and the Israelites through their whole his- 
tory had many pious servants. And piety among masters 
and servants was just as great as it has ev^er been since. 

In David's time the Jews had not half our present Bi- 
ble ; nor even half of the Old Testament. 

Christianity was propagated by oral teaching, and not 
by books. Some churches, for a long time had no por- 
tion of the Christian Scriptures, and others, who lived in 
secluded situations, obtained portions of the New Testa- 
ment gradually. Even in those places most favorably sit- 
uated. Hug thinks that the full collection of the Cliris- 
tian Scriptures was made in the second century under 
Trajan. In the times of Origen, Jerom, Eusebius, many 

9* 



96 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

particular books of the New Testament were not received 
by some of the churches, and their claims to an inspired 
origin were doubted. According to Eusebius, the Epistles 
of James and Jude, the second of Peter, the second and 
third of John the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apoca- 
lypse were the anti-legomena. 

All Christians, students excepted, obtain most of their 
religious knowledge by oral instruction. In adaptation to 
the constitution and circumstances of man, God has ap- 
pointed that sinners shall be in this Way brought to a 
knowledge of the truth and edified, by the "foolishness of 
preaching." By oral instruction, too, men learn their oc- 
cupations, in mechanics, husbandry and the various arts. 
And there are many men shrewd, contriving, judicious and 
successful in enterprise, who cannot read nor write. 
Oral instruction, rightly employed, is an adequate means 
of communicating instruction. So Socrates, Zeno and 
Pythagoras taught : so Homer, and all the bards : so He- 
rodotus and all the historians. Yes sir — by talking^ 
HEARING, and THINKING the greatest, most intellectual and 
polished of all nations, old Greece, was raised to her un- 
equalled eminence. 

So much, sir, for oral instruction, which it is not 
my design to magnify, but to save from misrepresentation, 
to rescue from affected contempt, and, for the benefit of 
our college halls and of truth ; to crown with merited re- 
spect in the pulpit its appropriate seat, in the Bible class, 
the professor's chair, the Lyceum, and family circle. If 
in the hands of the Roman priesthood it has been per- 
verted, and magnified beyond its merits, — so have books ; 
and under their fostering care, what has not ? If oral in- 
struction has been made ex cathedra, to perA'^ert and cripple 
the truth, yet who does not know that, in all countries, it 
is the herald and defence of liberty, giving freedom to- 
thought, and contibuting to the diffusion of knowledge? 

While in the use of this most efficient nieans of in- 
struction, and diligently employed with our schools for the 
slaves, a specimen of which I have already furnished, we 
have been suddenly arrested by a terrible commotion of 
the political elements. The quietude, and benevolent 
operations of the sanctuary are invaded and broken up. 



LETTERS OX SLAVERY. 9? 

Our slaves are sent home. We are interrupted, and oui" 
schools suspended. Why ? Because abolitionists pro^ 
nounce oral instruction inadequate, and undertake to 
change the prescription. Public indignation is excited 
against them. They are turned out of doors, and in the 
tumult, delay, and mutual ill blood, the patient dies of no- 
lect. Where lies his blood 1 O, sir, you may be an abo- 
litionist in Brunswick, and be saved. But with what I 
know, your sin to me would be damning. I speak what I 
feel, " more in sorrow than in anger." My heart bleeds 
over the miseries, moral desolations, and spiritual death, 
w^hich the operations of your society have spread over 
these lields w^hich we had just entered, and prepared for 
the harvest. Can your hands, by no means, be stayed ? 

I do not say that all is doing, or ever has been done for 
the religious instruction of the slaves, which ought to be 
done. But a fair beginning had been made, and but for 
the interposition of the abolitionists of the North, I do not 
hesitate to say, the slaves of this and the Atlantic neigh* 
boring states would now be generally enjoying a course 
of efficient and systematic instructions. I cannot but re- 
gard the failure as a melancholy instance of human frail- 
ty, showing a device of the devil in stirring up the bad 
passions of good men to prevent the very thing they desire. 

Nine years ago, I came into this state and found the 
public mind waking up to the duty of giving religious in- 
struction to the slaves. Although systematic plans were 
not then extensively matured, yet individual eiforts v/ere 
attended every where with valuable results. A cate- 
chism, suited to the colored population, was published 
and brought into use by one of the most influential minis- 
ters of Charleston in 1828. These facts, v/ith many 
others, w^hich might be mentioned, reaching still farther 
back, clearly show that the South began to av^ake to ac- 
tion on the subject while the abolitionists were yet in 
deep slum.ber. These aroused themselves long after the 
sun had risen, and with eyes yet but half opened, have 
been to this hour tugging at the wrong wheel, and trig- 
ging the other. It must be " blindness in part," with many 
of them. They are not bad men. Yet I am ready to ask^ 
when will they begin to see ? 



LETTER XIV. 



Rev. Professor Sjiyth '. 



Dear Sir, — When we assure you that you are doing 
incalculable injury to the cause of the slave, and entreat 
you to let us alone, you insist that the liberty of speech 
and of the press is invaded, that ice dare not speak the 
truth, and that in spite to the truth the slaveholder makes 
your fidelity the excuse for inflicting injustice on the slave. 
I will admit that these views may be sincerely expressed, 
for I knoAv that objects are very much modified in form, 
size, and every aspect, by the position we occupy, and 
the medium through which they are seen, as well as by 
the moral, intellectual, and even physical frame, under 
which our judgment acts. I will not, therefore, say that 
the abolitionists are maliciously the enemies of the slaves, 
liars against their brethren of the South, and uncharitable 
bigots, because they say and do such things. I will say 
they are mistaken, and if you will give me a candid hear- 
ing, I Avill show you that they are so. 

1. In regard to liberty of speech and of the press, I 
think it is not true that the South are unfriendly to the 
full and free exercise of it, nor have they ever invaded it 
under any form, which lays them liable to this charge. 
That this liberty is freely enjoyed by southern men in 
speaking and writing on the agitating subject of slavery, 
I may refer you for proof to the Report of the committee 
of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia in 1833, and 
the Essay of Rev. C. C. Jones, of the same year on the 
moral and religious condition of our colored population, 
from both of which you have quoted. Is there, in the 
fiinnals of the A.nti-Slavery Society, any thing more bold, 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 99 

explicit, and uncompromising than the language of these 
documents? You will say, there is nothing. Those pa- 
pers, then, are a fair specimen of the language and man- 
ner, in which the subject is spoken and written upon here. 
You will say, the abolitionists themselves have said noth- 
ing worse of slavery, and nothing better for truth. Very 
well. What then 1 Why it proves that we can say to 
one another what you cannot say to us. That we can do 
among ourselves, what you cannot do. Is this strange ? 
Not at all. You have some neighbors, who are your com- 
petitors in business. Their jealousy, or prejudice, or other 
unworthy causes have rendered all your sympathies un- 
welcome, and every kind office impossible. What do you 
do ? You will not insist en mocking their feverish sensi- 
bility. Grant them entirely in the wrong and you entirely 
in the right, yet you v»dll not persist in a public exercise 
of your benevolence while they grow worse and worse 
under it. No, — I think you would, under the exercise of 
Christian prudence, and Gospel love, do like my neighbor, 
who offered to a very needy but proud man, once his rival 
in better days, a wagon load of corn from the harvest field. 
It was rejected with w^onted disdain, and that too, while 
his family were suffering at home. My neighbor, w^hom 
I am sure you would desire to imitate, did not thrust the 
corn down his throat ; — he immediately went to a known 
confidential friend of this poor man, and procured his kind 
and acceptable offices in passing over the same load of corn 
to the relief of the same needy family. He enjoyed then 
the luxury of doing good, although another was made the 
almoner of his bounty. You wall admire not only the be- 
nevolence but the prudence and efficient zeal of this ben- 
efactor. He was right and the beneficiary was vvrong. 
" Snch is our God, and such are w^e," on whom he makes 
his sun to rise, and the rain to descend. Bear v^ith me, 
my brother, if I exhort you in this matter to imitate the 
divine example, so commendably practiced in the anec- 
dote, by w^hich I have just sought to enforce it, and to 
which I could furnish names of persons if it were prudent. 
If you cannot speak and write profitably on the duties of 
the slaveholder here, let us do it. You are not excluded 
by any spirit unfriendly to the freedom of speech, but if 



100 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

you please to say so, by a sinful prejudice. If your dying 
neighbor will not receive a remedy from your hand, don't 
let him die, let another hand administer the cup. 

But I cannot permit even the injustice here implied to 
be done to the South. There is another reason why we 
can speak with a freedom on this subject, which yow can- 
not use. It is this — Wc speak the truth, unmixed with 
those errors into which, on this subject, you are constant- 
ly, though unconsciously betrayed. We shape our argu- 
ment intelligently to the facts in the case. There is, 
therefore, no misapprehension of our words, motives, or 
true action. Hence, we are perniitted to speak when you 
cannot. Our words are like oil on troubled Avaters, while 
yours are like borean blasts, which lash the troubled 
waters into rage. 

But let us turn to history. Does that record any facts, 
which go to prove the South unfriendly to the liberty of 
speech or of the press ? I think not. The South never 
opposed the discussion of this subject in any of the ordi- 
nary forms of discussion. 'They never have said that the 
people of the North might not discuss it among themselves 
in any form they pleased. They never opposed the ordi- 
nary circulation of those discussions in the ordinary way 
at the South, Newspapers containing them came to sub- 
scribers as usual. Or if some quietly withdrew their pat- 
ronage from those prints professedly devoted to abolition- 
ism, others from cvuiosity, or a desire of information, or 
for other reasons sent on their subscription. The ordinary 
course of things was pormitted to proceed. What then 
have the South done ; I wdll tell you. When the Aboli- 
tion Society, assuming that the slavery of the southern 
states ought to cease and shall cease immediately, proceed- 
ed to raise large sums of money to accomplish this object; 
when they in 1833 — 4, had expended these funds in pub- 
lications of a character most offensive in language, illib- 
eral in spirit, and untrue in fact, as the slaveholders assert 
andbelie\e; when these publications were thrown into 
the South by every avenue that was open, both public and 
private ; w^lien the country thus became literally flooded 
with them, and they were picked up in every direction, 
and by persons of every class; — then, and not till then, 



Lettehs on slavery. l6l 

tlie South took the ground that a special exigency had ar- 
rived, which called for prompt and extraordinary action. 
They believed the pamphlets incendiary, their firesides in- 
vaded, their property, lives, and liberties in danger — and 
under this conviction, deep and strong, the laws were in 
several instances suspended, while they uttered the dec- 
laration and made it to be heard on the other side the 
Potomac — " You shall not speak and write to us and appear 
among us in this way.'''' This is the front of their offend- 
ing. I will not now stop to prove that they had good 
reason to assign the particular character to the exigency 
which they did, or to justify their course even if this po- 
sition were established. What I say is, that these were 
the circumstances and convictions under which they act- 
ed, and not from an unfriendliness to '■'■freedom of speech 
or the press." They acted as men are accustomed to act 
whenever you furnish them with similar circumstances, 
whether at the North or the South, the East or West. 
The South, therefore, have not shown themselves opposed 
to "the freedom of speech and of the press," as that lib- 
erty is understood and practiced in our "country of laws." 

2. That we dare to speak, and write and publish the 
truth on the subject of slavery as well as others, I need 
only to refer you again to published documents of our ec- 
clesiastical bodies, published sermons of our ministers, 
the newspapers of the day, the conversation every where 
publicly held, and the discourses from our pulpits through 
the land. These are the only competent witnesses in the 
case, and it seems to me they are decisive, unless it be 
necessary to make our daring meritorious. 

3. It has been sometimes said that the fidelity of the 
abolitionists increases the burdens of the slave, and there- 
fore the master is doubly criminal. Not, my dear sir, the 

fidelity of the abolitionists but their imprudence, to use the 
least offensive term. Self-preservation is a law of nature, 
and while the master continues to hold his slaves, he will 
provide for his ov/n safety, at every expense. The course 
pursued by the abolitionists does, in the opinion of the 
master, endanger his own safety and interests, and, there- 
fore, he abridges the privileges of the slave for his own 
protection. Who then is in fault ? The increased op- 



103 liEtfERS ON SlAV£Ry» 

pression suffered by the slave, the curtailment of his priv- 
leges, his prolonged bondage are all the necessary and 
only result of your benevolence and persevering obstinacy 
in a mistaken course. Here I have ever been the advo- 
cate and defender of the abolitionists against indiscrimi- 
nate and uncharitable impeachment of their motives. I 
can easily conceive how benevolent and pure minds, under 
the influence of false or exaggerated pictures of distress, 
could adopt the principles and practice of the abolition 
society, but how those same minds can now persevere in 
the cause, I find is not so easy to concede. The conse- 
quences, evil and only evil heretofore, necessarily evil in 
perpetuity, lie at the door of the abolitionists. So we 
sincerely believe. So will an awful catastrophe, I fear, 
pronounce, unless you change your course. 



LETTER XV. 



Rev. Professor S.myth : 

Dear Sir, — I have addressed to you these letters, 
now to be brought to a close under a deep sense of duty, 
and with the hope that I might contribute to suppress or 
mitigate what I deem a great evil. Such, in my appre- 
hension, is the present spirit of abolitionism in all its bearings 
on the social, political, and religious interests of our country. 
Such it must be in it=iissue as now made, if prosecuted, and 
especially if successful. That issue, I must entreat you to 
review and consider Avell. It is an issue of blood, in the 
disruption of political bonds, compact, and plighted faith. 
It is the dismemberment of our Union, the violation of 
constitutional law, order and political existence. For all 
this, it is the substitution of anarchy, misrule and licen- 
tiousness. Who is prepared for it ? 

Does your benevolence burn, and are your desires irre- 
pressible to do good to the African race, and to redress 
their wrongs ? I, too, am their friend^ I claim a fellow 
feeling, and perhaps am not beliind you in a present devo- 
tion to their interests. My feelings are active, aud live in 
actions, which are always louder than words, and those 
actions are in contact with their object. Do you ask for 
an object on which to expend your benevolence in acts of 
love ? I answer. First, seek those who are around you 
and dwell by you. Do them good. Redeem from ig-no- 
rance and vice the black men of Maine. If I mistake 
Hot the spirit of Gospel benevolence, it is appropriately,, 
if not intentionally, expressed by the poet. 

" Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace,. 
'^His country Jiext , and next all human race*"' 

10 



106 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

Vv''hen you have set in operation suitable means for the 
relief and benefit of those around you, then in the true 
missionary spirit, go abroad. 

• Avoiding scrupulously all interference with politics, 
and the civil institutions of every community, with true 
apostolic zeal and prudence, seek out the black man 
wherever you can find access to him to do him good. 
Especially seek him in the native land where he lives in 
thick, deep and damning darkness, depravity and moral 
ruin. Seek to cicvaie the race. Until you do this, you 
may clip the branches, but the root will be vigorous still. 
Why is Africa emphatically the land of slavery, and the 
Africans a race of slaves ? Not because two millions of 
her sons are in bondage here.. This is numerically a small 
fraction in the aggregate of African slavery. It is be- 
cause Africa, with a population of one hundred millions 
has the system of slavery pervading the whole country, 
and embracing, perhaps, one half its whole population. 
It is because, as a race^ the Africans are sunk in igno- 
rance, degradation and vice. It is because, in this con- 
dition, they cannot govern themselves, nor form any ele- 
vated standard of conduct and character. 

Do you suppose it would be possible to make slaves of 
any portion of our American Anglo-Saxon race ? No. 
And why ? Because the race is elevated above it, and 
know how to assert and estimate their liberty. Let but 
half a dozen common sailors, let even one of our hum- 
blest citizens be made a galley slave, and the whole race 
is united to liberate him. Does Africa do this 1 No. 
She is the maker of slaves, subjugating her own sons. 
She is properly the great mart, where they are sold for 
transportation to other and distant countries. To a great 
extent, therefore, the transfer of Africans to this country 
did not make them slaves — it only changed^ the place of 
their servitude. So far as they are seriously afiected by 
this change they are favorably affected. Who will denv 
that the slavery of this country is m.ore tolerable than the 
slavery of Africa. The most ignorant, degraded and 
vicious are the native Africans. The race here is intelli- 
gent, industrious and moral in almost exact proportion as 
their generations recede from the African stock. This, 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 107 

though true, is not adduced and cannot avail to justify the 
slave trade, which is execra,ble and condemned by other 
facts, and principles of elementary rights. 

What then should we do ? What can we do ? I 
ansv/er. Elevate the race. This we can do. They are 
capable of it. This we oyglit to do. This is precisely 
and eminently the effect of the efforts made by the Colo- 
nization Society. They go to Africa. They plant the 
Gospel there. They erect hospitals. They establish 
schools, and found colleges. They seek to elevate and 
regenerate the race. Planting themselves between the 
slave ship and the slave, they interpose the laws of na- 
tions to interdict the trade. At the same time, they shed 
abroad the light and warmth of Gospel truth to soften and 
humanize the hearts of the Africans themselves, cultiva- 
ting among them the arts of life, and diffusing the bles- 
sings of civil and self government. 

This, too, is precisely the object of the " Maine Union 
in behalf of the colored race." They seek to " elevate 
the condition and promote the best interest of the free 
people of color to whom they can gain access" — and to 
effect the " final extinction of slavery, so soon as it can be 
done with the free will and consent of the slaveholder." 

A similar object is promoted by the whole system of 
instruction attempted in the slave states. This prepares 
for the blessings of freedom, those who may be set free 
by their masters, and makes that freedom an acceptable 
boon, while it mitigates the evils of slavery, if it does not 
entirely extinguish them, to those who are retained in 
slavery. 

What then will be the result ? Wliat the issue ? Why, 
let this system go on. Let Africa becom.e enlightened, 
christianized, redeemed from her present degradation at 
home. Let the race all over the Avorld, through the be- 
nevolent exertions of those, who love their species, be 
taught, enlightened and elevated. What then ? Can they 
be a nation of slaves ? They cannot. Their wrongs 
will be redressed. They Avill become " emancipated and 
free." If they are not amalgamated, — which " may hea- 
ven forefend," — they will be placed on a footing M'hh other 
enlightened and industrious poor. If slavery is not anni- 



108 LETTERS ON SLAYERY. 

hilated, it will be modified, and be relieved of its op* 
pression. 

Now, what, on the other hand is the action of the Anti- 
Slavery Society ? The first thing they do is to place the 
men wdiom they would benefit, beyond their reach. Ther> 
by an abstraction, they would redeem two millions of Af- 
ricans to a w^orse condition than the present. They 
would annihilate at a stroke the Colonization Society, 
and extinguish the lights of life they have kindled alt 
along the coast of Western Africa. They would call 
away the Gospel heralds from Lil)eria, Cape Palmas, and 
Sierra Leone. They would annihilate the " Maine Un- 
ion," and theorise Africa and our southern slaves into good 
free men, and intelligent Christians. Was ever fanati- 
cism more palpably blind and fatal to its objects? 

1 have now, sir, borne my testimony, and resisted the 
impeachment of it. This testimony was first given in an- 
swer to frequent inquires after the truth, and its defence, 
attempted in these letters addressed to you, is a just re- 
quital of the ingenuousness, which placed your proper 
signature to your communications. If I have been betray- 
ed into ill temper or unkind personalities in a single in- 
stance, it has been against my settled purpose, and re- 
mains still unperceived by me. I am not too blind, how- 
ever, to suspect myself of a liability to err in these respects. 
Debate, whether on principle or facts, is too apt to awaken, 
a spirit of acrimony, and end in bitter personalities. 
Thus, an impulse is received, which often drives to ex- 
tremes those, who commenced with candor. Under the 
distinct apprehension of these dangers, I determined to 
make my statements and retire. Nothing has changed 
this determination bnt a denial of the correctness of my 
statements under a responsible name. Having now con- 
firmed my former testimony, it is left to do its office. 

It is humiliating to refle'^t how much we are liable to- 
the influence of prejudice and passion, how distorted 
the truth may become in our own handling, or per- 
verted when looked at through the most correct paintings 
of others. Such facts should ever make us suspicious of 
ourselves ; since what is true of the species, must per- 
tain to the individuals of that species, and what is general 



LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 109 

may attach unconsciously to ourselves. During a life not 
yet long, I have learned to fear the extremes almost inva- 
riably taken by parties under excitement, and to look with 
much charity on the acts of those who take them. 

During the operation of the " restrictive system," so 
called, under Mr. Madison's administration, I resided iu 
Fortlaiii, Tiivj v)Glitical parties were then in the highest 
state of excitement, and apparently ready for revolution. 
Social intercourse between them was almost broken up. 
Society was split, cleft asunder by the wedge of politi- 
cal rancor. Political integrity and common honesty were 
hardly awarded in the judgment of one man to his politi- 
cal opponents. The demon of discord was in the ascen- 
dant, and all was bitterness, sometimes even in the cup of 
a common table. Families were divided, children disin- 
Jierited, even the elements of a man's own spirit seemed 
to be turned to gall within him, pervadinghis entire thought, 
feeling and action. Too young then to receive the virus, 
though youth were not entirely exempted from the conta- 
gion — I looked on with more of the philosopher, perhaps, 
than some who had studied philosophy as a science. My 
observations, then made, have been of lasting benefit. 
The lapse of a few months made great alterations. A 
few more months changed the state of parties, formed 
wew combinations, joined new hands, and separated old 
attachments. Thus, witliin a period too short to prove 
the real reformation of a villian, these men, who lately 
acted under the most profound belief of each other's ras- 
cality were joined hands and hearts, and were soon 
*' nestling together heads and points, in the same truckle 
bed." The fact was, they were both honest, and when 
passion and prejudice had subsided, they both saw the 
truth. They all loved their country, and sought accord- 
ing to their judgment, its best interests. 

In the late political struggle on the tariff, I have re- 
sided in South Carolina. Here, we have had our " Union 
men," and "Nullifiers." The same excited feeling, pas- 
sion, prejudice, and bitterness have pervaded society and 
interrupted its harmony. Although now a man, yet being 
a minister of religion, I have never become a politician. 
Enjoying independently my own opinions, I have stood 



110 LETTERS ON SLAVERY. 

aloof, having never yet, during a life of more than forty 
years, gone down to the ballot box, nor identified myself 
with a political party. I have, therefore, still been an 
observer. During the recent contest, I have sat at the 
table of one of my congregation, and heard the intelligent 
and respectable head of the family declare that he believed 
from his ulmost boul thu^ it was impossibls for a " Un- 
ion" to be either a Christian, an honest man, or a patriot. 
The next day, I dined with another member of my church 
of the opposite party, and in similar words of bitterness, 
and uncharitableness, he denounced the " nullifiers." 
Such was the general state of society and party feeling. 
Yet the lapse of two or three years has here also broken 
up these old parties, formed new ones, and entirely re- 
formed these rascals, who are now good men and true in 
the estimation of those, who were then their bitterest ene- 
mies. And yet they are the same men — all honorable, 
honest, lovers of the country, and ready to die for it. 

Such also is the state of parties on most of those sub- 
jects that go to make up the aggregate of an unparalled 
degree of excitement, which now disturbs the political 
elements, and moves the foundations of society. Even 
towards the abolitionists, in my apprehension the most 
unreasonable, the most inveterately obstinate and danger- 
ous of all, I have never permitted myself to entertain any 
sentiments but those of forbearance and charity. Although 
I have spoken freely of their errors, I have no doubt there 
is among them a great deal of true patriotism and moral 
honesty. I do not know a man among them, toward 
whom, on this account, I could decline society or Chris- 
tian fellowship. They are honest as a party, and there- 
fore are capable of reformation. I believe they will see 
their error, and the fanaticism will evaporate. In accord- 
ance with these sentiments, I have now only to express 
toward you my personal respect, and proffer you a broth- 
er's hand. R. W. Bailey. 



10 



BOOKS 

PtJBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY 

JOHN S. TAYLOR, 

THEOLOGICAL AND SUNDAY SCHOOL BOOKSELLER, 

BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, 

CORNER OF PARK-ROW ANU NASSAU-STREET, OPPOSITE THB CITY-HALZ* 

NEW-YORK. 



SELECT REMAINS OF THE LATE WILLIAM NE- 

V[NS, D. D. with a Memoir. Price $1 00. 

From the New- York Weekly Messenger. 

Select Remains of the Rev. William Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir. — 
" The righteous shall be had in evcrlastmg remembrance." They erect for 
themselves a monument, enduring as the throne of God, imperishable as the 
crown of glory which bedecks the brow of him who is Lord of all. These 
ligiits of the \7orld are never extinguished ; but while their mortal remains 
are mouldering in the tomb, the recollection of their graces enkindles in 
those who remain, a flame of holy emulation and zeal. Such is, and will 
be the case, with respect to the lamented divine whose honored name stands 
£.t the head of this notice. Dr. Nevins was a man of eminent piety and 
great talent, a2id though he requested that no extended memoir of him might 
be attempted, yet it was never likely but that some account of him should 
he written and published. This has been done, and the usefulness of the 
work before us cannot fail to be co-extensive v/ith its circulation. The 
prominent features of Dr. Nevins' character are worthy of universal imita- 
tion. His talents and acquirements Vv'ere superior, his piety sincere, and his 
wis.lom practical. Humility and amiability, diligence and punctuality, were 
traits acknowledged by all who knew him. He was a powerful writer, and 
tliose productions of his pen which appear in this volume as " Select Re. 
mains," arc "as apples of gold in pictures of silver" — "words fitly spoken." 
In addition to all the excellencies with which this volume abounds, wo 
are happy to mention the neatness and beauty of its typography, the white- 
ness of the paper, and the exquisite delicacy of the beautiful likeness of Dr. 
Nevins with which the book is embellished. We shall cease to mention 
London books as standards of taste and elegance, if such volumes as this 
arc presented to us from a New York press and bindery. We recommend 
vliis work to universal attention. 

From the New-York Evangelist. 

Nezins' Reinains. — A ?vIemoir of the late Rev. William Nevins, with S&- 
bet Extracts from his unpublished writings. 

The public wore informed, at the time of Dr. Nevins' decease, that h». 



3 ADVERTISEJIENTg. 

papers had been placed, by himself, in the hands of Rev, William Plumer^ 
lo he used at his discretion. The volume before us is the result, arid shows 
that the discretion ha.3 been uiscrecilj exercised. The memoir is brief, in 
decorous conformity to the expressed wish or the decesised. Tlie selections 
ai-e mostly paragraphs and short esdays, such as Dr. N. was accustomed to 
write for the papers. 

Probably none of our readers have yet to learn the character of Dr. Ne 
vins, as a Christian of rich experience, a pastor of tried fidelity, and a writer 
of religious essays unsuipassed in our day. To all his friends this volume 
will be a valuable momcnto. The pablishcr has spared no pains in the ex. 
ternal appearance of the book, wliicli is equal to tlie fmest productions of the 
English press. The portrait is very fine. 

From ihe New-York Observer. 

Select Remains of Rev. William Nevirjs, D. D., with a MeJnoir. — This 
valuable work has jast been publis!;e.l by Mr. John S. Taylor, corner of 
Park-row and Nassau-street. It is a liandsome octavo of 398 pages, con- 
taining a portrait engraved on steel. About 80 pages arc occupied with a 
biographical notice of Dr. Novins and extracts from his diary. From 1830 
until 1835, they are given in an unbroken sericF. We have seldom read a 
diary v/ith deeper interest. It becomes richer and riclier in lieavenly thoughts 
as the author drew near the end of his earthly labors. Tiie book consists 
chiefly of selections from liis ur.paulislied v/ritings, which are replete with 
the purest and most exalted sentiments, expressed with simplicity, con- 
ciseness, and point. To all who have read Mr. Nevins' Essays in the New- 
York Observer, over the fjignatm-e of M. S. it is needless to remark upon 
the excellence and peculiar charm of his writings, which combine senten- 
tiousness and pungency v/ith deep and living piety. Tiie work may be 
recommended as useful in foriuinj.^and strengthening, and maturing the 
Christian graces. 

From the Newark Daily Advertiser, 

Select Remains of Rev. Williarn Nevins, D. D. with a Memoir. — An 
elegant octavo of 400 page-, with a spirited portrait from a pamting by In- 
man. The v.'ork Ls m all respects — pnpcr, print, hiiidir.g, contents — a 
l^eautlfiil memorial of an amiable and lamented divine, wJiose pure light 
ehone brightly in the church. Tiie memoir is brief and modest, consisting 
chiefiy of extracts from hio correspondence with his friends. The " Re- 
mains" comprise a great variety of extracts from Dr. Nevins' writings, con- 
taining his views on most leailing questions v/liich interest the attention of 
the christian world. 

After straining the ejc over the full and condensed pages of the popular 
publications of the day, wo experience great relief from the bold typography, 
open page, and clear broad margin of an old-fasliioned volume like this. 
The publisher has given us a noble specimen of his art. 

From the Conimercial Advertiser. 

Remains of Nevins. — John S. Taylor lias just published a large and ele- 
gantly printed and bound, 8vo, entitled " Select Remains of the Rev. Wm. 
Nevins, D. D., v;ith a Memoir." Tlie name of the author and compiler is 
not given , but he has executed Ids labor with excellent judgment and taste. 
The haemoir is a rapid sketch of the life of Dr. Nevins, for wliich, although 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 3 

by no means devoid of interest, it appears that few materials had been pre- 
served. 

The " Select Remains" consist, for the most part, of short sketches and 
fragments of compositions, devout meditations, reflections, &,c. upon a great 
variety of religious and moral subjects, with a collection of select sentences, 
aphorisms, &c. &.c. found scattered among the papers of the deceased. 
Among these are many bright and beautiful thoughts, and the whole work 
is interspersed with such a rare spirit of meek and gentle piety as is but sel- 
dom to be found in the compositions of the best. He was a man who al- 
most literally " walked with God." 

From the American Citizen. 

Select Reviains of the Rev. William Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir. — 
This work (to adopt the language of the Newai'k Advertiser) is, in all re- 
spects — paper, print, binding, contents — a beautiful memorial of an amiable 
and lamented divine, whose pure light shone brightly in the Church. The 
memoir is brief and modest, consisting chiefly of extracts frojn his corres 
pondence with his friends. The " Remains" comprise a great variety of ex 
tracts from Dr. Nevins' v.ritings, containing his views on most leading ques- 
tions which interest the attention of the Christian world. 

The volume is an octavo of 400 pages, is printed on large open type, has 
a spirited likeness of the subject of the Memoir, painted by Inman, and en- 
graved by Paradise, and is otherwise well " got up.'' Though Dr. Nevins 
died young, his fame (if the word may be pardoned) as a preacher and writer, 
was wide spread, and we cannot but trust that the good taste and liberal spirit 
of the publisher, as evinced in this instance, will be duly appreciated and re- 
Avarded. Indeed, the public — the religious public especially — are much in- 
debted to Mr. Taylor for their previous acquaintance with the author of these 
Remains, through the " Practical Thoughts,''^ and the " Thoughts on Po- 
pery," the first of which works is every where read with pleasure, and both, 
it is hoped, with profit ; and they have doubtless prepared the way for the 
favorable reception of tlic present volume. 

Dr. Nevins v/rote mucli, and ail who read, will acknowledge tliat he wrote 
well. 

From the Evening Star. 

Select Remains of the Rev. William Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir. — 
The subject of this memoir was a pious and unpretending divine, in posses- 
sion of strong faculties and many great virtues. His life was one of great 
usefulness, and much of his time devoted to the relief of the distressed and 
the alleviation of the misfortunes of his brethren. The style in which this 
work is sent forth deserves the highest commendation. ' The type is large, 
full, and handsome, and tlie paper is v/hite, clear and lustrous, and presents a 
beautiful specimen of typographical neatness. 

From the Journal of Comnicrco. 

Memoir and Remains of Rev. Dr. Nevins, late of Baltimore. — An m- 
telligent friend who has read this work, (which we have not yet found time 
to do,) speaks of it as " a beautiful volume, and as useful as it is beautiful." 
He adds — " The Memoir is prepared by a judicious friend of the deceased, 
whose name is not given, and the Remains consists of short reflections on va- 
rious subjects of every day utility, for v^^hich the lamented author (alas ! too 
soon removed to his reward) was so celebrated. The mam^.er in which it is 



4 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

got up, is very creditable to the publisher, Mr. John S. Taylor, of Park Row, 
Chatham street. We need such aids to reflection, and we hope our readers 
will patronize this book, and make themselves familiar with the precepts and 
example of the worthy disciple of our Savior." 

From the New-York American. 

Select Remains of the Rev. William Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir. — 
The life of a pious, unpretending, and zealous Clergyman, offers little out of 
which to make a book suited to the popular taste — but affection loves to per- 
petuate the memory of its objects, and affection has ushered forth this vol- 
ume, beautiful in its materials and typography, and well fitted to instruct, 
refine, and purify by its contents. 

The extracts from the diary of Dr. Nevins present him in a most favorable 
light, as a cheerful, humble and resigned clergyman — ^who found in the midst 
of severe domestic affliction that his religion was a reality, and that its pro- 
raises were not in vain. 

The greater part of the volume is made up of miscellaneous extracts on 
different subjects, all connected with religion, from the manuscript papers of 
Dr. Nevins. 

From the Philadelphia Gazette. 

Dr. Nevins. — We find upon our table a beautifully printed octavo volume, 
entitled " Select Remains of the Rev. William Nevins, D. D., \vith a Me- 
moir ;" and we obser\^e also, a well engraved likeness of the estimable subject 
of the Memoir. We found time to read only the Memoir and some of the 
" Remains." We share, we suppose, with most persons the pleasure of read- 
ing diaries, auto-biographical sketches, and short memoirs. I'hey open up 
the heart to the reader, and, as face answers to face in the glass, one finds 
his own heart beating responsive to the pulsations of his whose experience 
he is gathering. Dr. Nevins was a man of deep affections — ^while he seem, 
ed to direct all its streams towards objects of eternal interest, there was a 
swelling up and gushing forth for home and the fire-side circle, that showed 
how salutary are the touches of religion upon earthly love ; the true exercise 
of the latter being the best evidences of the existence of the fonner. 

The " Remains" are extracts from the sermons and occasional writings of 
Dr. Nevins, and show a ripe scholar, a clear thinker, and good writer. We 
commend the book to those who like religious reading — ^they will find plea- 
sure in its perusal. We commend it more to those who do not like religious 
reading — they will find profit from its study. 

From the New-Yorker, 

* Select Remains of Rev. William Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir." — 
Rarely have we welcomed to our tabic a volume so strikingly creditable to 
the American press as that now before us — a beautifully and richly executed 
octavo of 400 pages. The matter is worthy of the garb in which it is pre- 
sented. The divine whose " Remains" are thus given to the public, was a 
burning and a shining light in the Presbyterian Church, and his decease was 
deeply and widely felt by his brethren in faith, but especially at Baltimore, 
the theatre of his labors of love. The volume now published consists of 
choice extracts from his sermons, his letters, and his contributions to reli- 
gious joui'nals. It is embellished by a beautiful likeness, and deserves an 
Honorable place in the library of the orthodox Christian. 



ADVBHTISEMENTS. 5 

From the New-York Exprees. 

Select Remains of the Rev. Mr. Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir.— New - 
York, John S, Taylor, corner of Park Row and Nassau-street; an elegant 
octavo of 400 pages, with a spirited portrait from a painting by Inman. 
TJze work is in all respects — paper, print, binding, and contents — a beauti- 
ful memorial of an amiable and lamented divine, whose pure light shone 
brightly in the church. The memoir is briei" and modest, consisting chiefly 
of extracts from his correspondence with his friends. The " Remains" com- 
prise a great variety of extracts from Dr. Nevins' writings, containing his 
views on the leadbig questions which interest the attention of the cliristian 
world. 

From the Morning Star. 

Select Remains of the Rev. Mr. Nevins, D. D., with a Memoir, with an 
tlegant portrait, from a pamting by Inman. 

This is a most beautifal work. In paper, print, and binding, it exceeds 
any new work that we have seen. The Memoir is correct and brief. The 
Remains comprise a variety of the finost extracts from the writings of this 
eminently talented and lamented divine : several of them are on the doc- 
trines which now agitate the church. 

From the American Baptist. 

Select Remains of the Rev. Wiilimn Neci.-is, D. D. With a Memoir. 
8vo. pp. 398. 

With Dr. Nevins, it was never our happiness to be perfionally acquainted. 
But the peri:|J|l of this work has left a deep yet unavailing regret, that we 
should have been contemporary with such a choice spirit — should have 
dwelt in the same city with hmi, and it may be, have sided by him in the 
crowded street, and yet never have seen, and never have known him ! 

And so will it be with many, now pressing with us for tlio goal, who, 
when they have outrun vis in the Christian stadium, have seized the gar- 
land, and their virtues and their victories iiave been heralded to the churcli 
and to the world, we shall regret that we saw them not, and wonder most of 
all, that living m the same age, sojourning in the same cities, and perhaps 
for a time sheltered beneath the same roof, we yet sJiould have let pass un- 
improved the golden opportunity of enriching our stores of piety and intelli- 
gence by an cnuca.red and confiding intercourse. 

To us the very sight of a holy man is sanctifying. We love to gaze on 
his resemblance to his Lord, till we catch his spirit and are changed into the 
same image ! What gainers then might vv'e have been, had we been brought 
within the influence of a man, a Christian, and a minister, so richly endowed 
with piety and intellect, and around v/hom there was thrown, in foldings of 
' such richness and grace, the beautiful robe of humility, as was Nevins ! 
What lessons might we have drawn from his holy walk, hi:, stern principles 
of integrity, his untiring industry, his vaiious and successful plans of use- 
fulness, and the spirit of self-annihilation which enshrined all in its burning 
lustre ! Bat we have formed an intimacy with him through his " Remains,'* 
— alas I that the response should be from the grave ! — and their perusal has 
left upon the heart the faint impress of a character, which, in its living in- 
fluence, must have been peculiarly and eminently spiritual. The " Memoir" 
which introduces the " Remains," though brief, possesses yet a chn.rm which 
other and more elaborate biographies can seldom clahn — that of permitting 
the subject himself to speak out the history of his ov>'n life and oxpcricneo — 

1* 



6 ADVERETISEMENT9. 

SO that the memoir of Nevins might be justly styled an auto-b»ography 
The extracts from his diary and letters will be read with deep interest — and 
cold and unfeeling must be the individual who can linger around the touch- 
ing picture of his desolated and broken heart, mourning over the grave of 
her who was the wife of his youth and the charm of his life, and feel no 
thrilling emotion. The Christian, too, who is, as was the departed Nevms, 
all his life-time in bondage through the fear of death, as he stands by his 
bed-side, and beholds him with unshaken faith in the faithfulness of God^ 
and listens to his song, though tremulous in death, of joy and trimnph, will 
dismiss his fears, and commit liis soul afresh to Hun who is able to keep it 
against that day. 

But of his " Remains," what shall we say ? We have perused, and re. 
perused, and will peruse them yet again, so elevated in thought, so pure in 
style, so eloquent in language, and so rich in piety are they. We think, in 
each of these particulars, they will rank with " Pascal's and Adam's 
Thoughts," and with " Searl's Christian Remembrancer." By their side, on 
our biographical shelf, we have placed the " Remains and the Memoir of 
William Nevins." 

The work, as presented to the public by its enterprising publisher, John 
S. Taylor, Park Row, New- York, is a beautiful specimen of neatness in 
typography, and elegance in binding. Its appearance will vie with any 
book in this department of literatin"e which we have yet received either from 
the English or the American press. That the fondest hopes which influ. 
enced Nevins in writing, Plumer in compiling, and Taylor in publishing 
this work, may reach the utmost limits of realization, is our sincerest wish. 

From the Long-Island Star. ^ 

Select Remains of the Rev. William Nevins, D. D. with a Memoir — 
New-York — John S. Taylor. The gifted author of these posthumous frag, 
ments, while in the midst of his deeds of charity and love, and before he had 
reached his manhood's prime, was summoned from the field of his laboiii 
and conflicts to 

" Join the caravan that moves 
" To the pale realms of shade." 

Perhaps the usefulness of the art of printing is never so forcibly felt ae 
when death suddenly severs a great mind, and extinguishes a flaming light 
from among the living. The press seems to grasp and converge the rays 
that gather over the death-couch of the devoted in piet]'' and strong in inteL 
lect and pours them out again in their full effulgence, 

" The round of rays complete," 

upon a benighted world. The press, into the everlastmg ear of its memory, 
seems to drink up the last impressive lesson and parting benediction of the 
departing patriarch, as he takes his departure to mingle with those beyond 
the flood, and imparts to them an immortal voice, whereby " being dead, he 
yet speaketh." Truly may it be said of the lamented Nevins, " being dead, 
he yet speaketh" — speaketh in the kindness of heart by which he was en. 
deared to the social circle — speaketh by his good works, for which the 
widow and the fatherless still bless his memory — speaketh in his exemplary 
piety, whicli made him a " burning and a shining light" to a captious and 
infidel people — speaketh in the language of his eloquei.t teachings and aspiu 
rations, preserved in the volume before us, for the enlightenment and consa. 
lation of the way-farer on life's bleak journey. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 7 

From the Rev, Wm. Adams, Pastor of the Broome-st. Church, New-York. 

Memoir and Select Remains of Nevins. — It would be difficult to men- 
tion a book which does more credit to an author or a publisher than this. 
The contents are like " apples of gold in pictures of silver." 

Who that knew the lamented author, does not sec his image reflected 
from these pages — refined, ornate, thoughtful and spiritual. We see him 
again passing through his various and diversified trials — prosperity and ad- 
versity, sickness and death, and coming out like silver that has been tried. 
We commend especially the fragments which were written under the great- 
est of all earthly losses, and in near prospect of his own departure. They 
breathe the spirit of heaven. Blessed be God for such an exemplification of 
faith and patience — for this new evidence of the reality and stability of our 
hopes. He was a burning and a shining light, and many have and will re- 
joice in that light. 

The fragmentary form of these articles will insure frequent perusal. 
They are the best specimens of this description smce the Remains of Cecil ; 
with less of his mannerism and style, there is more of simplicity and adapt- 
edness to general readers. In a time of haste and little reflection, their 
brilliant thoughts may arrest attention, and lead others to reflect also. 

In unqualified terms do we commend this volume, for the richness of its 
contents and the uncommon elegance of its form. William Adams. 

PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. By the late Dr. Nevins, of 
Baltimore 

THOUGHTS ON POPERY. By Dr. Nevins, of Baltimore. 

From die New-York Observer of April 9ih, 1836. 

Tiie Practical Thoughts consists of forty-six articles on prayer, praise, 
professing Clirist, duties to Sabbath Schools, the monthly concert, the con- 
version of the world, violations of the Sabbath, liberality, man's inconsis- 
tency, the pity of the Lord, Christian duty, death, &,c. ; the last of whicli 
are " Heaven's Attractions" and " The Heavenly Recognition," closing with 
the words, " By the time we have done what I recommend, we shall be 
close upon the celestial confines — perhaps within heaven's limits." * * 

There the sainted autlior laid down his pen, leaving the article unfin- 
ished, and went, none can doubt, to enjoy the blest reality of the scenes he 
had been so vividly describing. 

These articles combine great simplicity, attractiveness, and vivacity of 
thought and style, with a spiritual unction scarcely to be found in any other 
writer. Thousands of minds were impressed with them as they first ap- 
pcared ; they reproved the inconsistent Christian, roused the slumbering, 
and poured a precious balm into many an afflicted bosom. While writing 
them, the author buried a beloved wife, and had daily more and more sure 
indications that the hour of his own departure was at hand ; and God ena- 
bled him, from the depth of his own Christian experience, to open rich foun- 
tains of blessing for others. 

The Thoughts on Popery are like, and yet unlike, the other series. 
There is the same sprightliness of the imagination, the same clearness, ori- 
ginality, and richness of thought, with a keenness of argument, and some- 
times irony; that exposes the baseness and shamelessncss of the dogmas and 
Buperstitions of Popery, and that must carry home conviction to the under- 



8 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

standing ant heart of every unprejudiced reader. Piece by piece the delu- 
sion, not to say imposition, of that misnamed church are exposed, under the 
heads of the Sufficiency of the Bible, the Nine Commandments, Mortal and 
Venial Sins, lafallibility, I Jolatry, R-jlics, the Seven Sacraments, Penance, 
the Mass, Celibacy of tiie Clergy, Purgatory, Canonizing Samts, Lafayette 
not at Rest, The Leopold Reports, Supererogation, Convents, &.c. We 
know of nothing that has yet been issued which so ls.ys open the deformities • 
of Popery to coimnoa luhids, or is so admirably adapted to save cm* country 
from its wiles, and to guard the souls of men from its fatal snares. 

HINTS TO PAREZ\TS ON THE EARLY RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. By Gardiner Spring, D. 
D., Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New-York^ 
18mo. v/ith a steel engraving. Price 37^ cts. 

From the New-York Weekly Messenger and Young Man's Advocate. 

Dr. Springes Hints to Parents. — One of the prettiest little works of this 
class that we have ever m?t with, is just published ; it is called " Hints to 
Parents on the Religious Education of Children. By Gardmer Spring, 
D. D." The author has been long and favorably known to the public as a 
chaste, powerful, and popular writer. The subject of the present v/ork is 
one of great moment — one in Vi^hich every parent has a real interest. And 
we commend this little A'olume, not only to pious parents, but to all who de- 
sire to bring up their children in such a manner as to make them an honor to 
themselves and a blessing to their fcllov/-men. 

\^Oii\ the Commercial Advertiser. 

Hints to Parents on the Religious Education oj Children. By Gardi. 
ner Spring, D. D. — This beautiful little volume, coming out at this time, will 
be peculiarly acccpt?Jjle to the congregation of the able and excellent author, 
and will have the eifcet of a legaej'^ of his opinions on a most important sub- 
ject, now that for a time they are deprived of his personal instructions. It is 
a work that should bo in the hands of every parent throughout our country, 
who has the temporal and eternal interest of his offspring at heart. The 
few and leading maxims of the Christian religion are plainly and practically 
enforced, and the parent's duties are descanted on in a strain of pure and 
beautiful eloquence, which a father's mind, elevated by religion, only could 
have dictated. We b;dieve that a general knowledge of this little volume 
would be attended v/ith consequences beneficial to society, since a practice of 
its recommendations could scarcely be refused to its solemn and affectionate 
spirit of entreaty. 

THE MINISTRY WE NEED. By S. H. Cox, D. D., and 
others. 37^ cents. 

From the Literary and Theological Review. 

This neat little volume comprises the inaugural charge and address which 
were delivered on occasion of inducting the Professor of Sacred Rheto- 
ric AND Pastoral Theology in the Tueological Seminary at Auburn. Tho 
friends of Dr. Cox will not be disappointed in his inaugural address. It bears 
the impress of his talents and piety — his enlarged views and Catholic spirit. 
To anaJyze it would convey no adequate idea of its merits. Hia theme is the 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 9 

ministry of reconciliation — •» the chosen medium by which God conciliatea 
men — the mighty moral enginery that accomplishes his brightest wonders — 
the authentic diplomacy of the King of kings working salvation in the midst 
of the earth." The manner in which he treats his subject, in relation to the 
importance of the Christian ministry, and the kind of ministry needed in this 
age and nation, we need hardly remark, will amply repay the perusal of hia 
brethren, if not be interesting and instructive to the Church at large. 

" Error.scenting notoriety" may not altogether like the odor of this little 
book ; and the " lynx-eyed detecters of heresy" will not be forward to ap- 
prove a work in which they are handled with unsparing severity ; but by " all 
the favorei's on principle of a pious, sound, educated, scriptural, and accom- 
plished ministry in the Church of God, and throughout the world, as the 
MINISTRY WE NEED, to whom tliis little volume is most respectfully inscribed," 
it will be read, and, we trust, circulated. 

THE LILY OF THE VALLEY. 18mo. Price 37^ cents. 

From the Methodist Protestant, Baltimore. 

This is a neat and very interesting little volume. The narrative through- 
out will be read with pleasure, and some portions of it with thrilling interest. 
The story is natural, and told in very neat language and with admirable sim- 
plicity. It is not only calculated to please and interest the mind of the reader, 
but also to make m-oral and religious impressions upon the heart. We are 
well assured, if its merits were generally known, that it would find its way 
mto many families and Sabbath school libraries, as it is particularly adapted 
to please and engage the attention of Juvenile readers. 

From the Christian Intelligencer. 

This is a republication of a small narrative volvune published in England. 
The narrative is written with beautiful simplicity, possesses a touching inte- 
rest, and is calculated to leave a salutary impression. It is well fitted for a 
present by parents or friends to children, and is worthy of a place in Sabbath 
school libraries. 

From the Ladies' Morning Star of Aug. 2G, 1836. 

The above is the title of a very interesting little work of 12.3 pages, recently 
published and for sale by John S. Taylor, Brick Church Chapel, New-York. 
It is a simple though beautiful narrative of a young female, some portions of 
which are of the most pathetic and affecting character, particularly designed 
for the edification and instruction of young females, and a most excellent work 
to introduce into Sai)bath schools. Its tendency is to kindle the flames of 
piety in the youthful bosom, to instruct the understanding, and to warm and 
improve the heart. Its intrinsic though unostentatious merits, should furnish 
it with a welcome into every family. 

Commendatory Notice, by the Rev. W. Patton. 

Mr. J. S. Tavlor, — It affords me pleasure to learn that you are about to 
republish the little work called " The Lily of the Valley." Since the time 
it was presented to my daughter by the Rev. Dr. Matheson, of England, it ha« 
been a great favorite in my family. It has been read with intense interest by 
many, who have from time to tune obtained the loan of it. Indeed it has but 
f<eldom been at home since its first perusal. I doubt not but all who have read 
it will be glad of the opportunity of possessing a copy. 



10 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

The story is not only natural, but instructive ; and well calculated to ini. 
press upon the mind important moral and religious lessons. Some portions of 
the narrative are of the most touching and thrilling character. There is a 
charming simplicity pcrv^ading the work. I feel a strong confidence that you 
will find an ample sale for the book. It will find its vv'ay into many families, 
and be found in the libraries of the Sabbath school. 

Yours respectfully, 

Wm. Patton. 

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. By 
William C. Brownlee, D. D. ^1 00. 

From the Religious Magazine. 

f Lights and Shadows of Christian Life. Designed for the histruction 
of the Young. By William Craig Broionlee, D. D. of the Collegiate 
Reformed Dutch Church, Neu)-York. New-York, John S. Taylor. 1837. 
12mo. pp. 388. — Dr. Brownlee has here presented tlie Christian public 
with a volume of Religious Talcs, which cannot fail, we thinlc, to be read 
with general interest by the friends of religion, to whatever creed they may 
belong. It is refreshing to find one who has been so long harnessed for po- 
lemical warfare, thus laying aside his spear and shield, and endeavouring to 
benefit his readers, by presenting the truths of religion under so attractive a 
form as is afforded by well-written tales. This is, without doubt, a difficult 
species of composition, and one in which, though many have made the at- 
tempt, few have ever met with more than partial and short-lived success. For 
this fact there are plainly some obvious reasons. The first is probably the 
want of a correct public taste for what is just and true in religion. The 
eecond, we imagine, lies rather in the mode in which the attempt has usually 
been made, than in the nature of the case. It is much easier, and conse- 
quently far more common, to connect dull and tedious conversations on relL 
gious topics, with a meagre and uninteresting narrative, than to form a story 
which shall by its very texture, impress religious truth, without the aid of 
direct instruction. Hence, such works, considered as religious essays, are 
too barren of iiistruction, to engage much attention, and, viewed as tales, 
they waivt the essential element of deep and pennanent interest in the 
narrative. 

The views of our author upon this subject may be learned from the fol- 
lowing extract from his introductory address to his youthful readers. 

Whether the honour, thus " accepted" by Dr. Brownlee, of being asso- 
ciated, in any sense, with Professor Wilson, the incomparable author of the 
" Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," will be finally awarded to him, it 
would be premature for us to attempt to decide by anticipating the verdict of 
futurity. To be thus associated is indeed a high honom*, and one which un- 
doubtedly requires far more for its attainment, than to compose a book with a 
title similar to that of the highly popular work of the Professor. A**. 

From the Methodist Protestant. 

Lights and Shadows of a Christian Life ; designed for the instruction 
of the young, by Wm. C. Broicnlee, D. D. — This is a most excellent and 
valuable work. It comprises several highly interesting narratives intended 
for the illustration of divine truth, and the enforcement of duty. They are 
founded on fact, and presented in an attractive and nervous style, and well 
calculated to engage the attention of juvenile readers, for whom tiie book is 



ADVERTISEMENTS. IJ 

principally designed ; and to make deep impressions upon the mind in favor 
of the Christian religion. There was a great necessity for a volume, whose 
attractions might divert tlie mind from tliose light and trashy productions 
that are teeming from the press, and calculated to vitiate the taste, and en- 
feeble the intellect of the reader. This necessity is now met by the interest- 
ing and useful volume of Dr. Brovrnlee ; which we hope will have an 
extensive circulation. 

The book is got up in excellent style by the j)ublisher, Mr. J. S. Taylor, 
of New-York. It may be had in this city of J. J. Harrod. 

From the Philadelphia Observer. 

Lights and Shadows of Christian Life, by William C. Brovmlec, D. D , 
Published by J. S. Taylor, New-York, and Henry Perkins, Philadelphia. 
The author of this work is well known to, and appreciated by, the Ameri 
can public, as an able controversialist. He exhibits himself in tlie present 
publication, as no less able in presenting the details of ordinary life, and in 
giving them an interesting form, and a practical direction. Instruction, and 
entertainment, arc judiciously blended in this volume, so as to make it at- 
tractive to the young, for v.'Jiosc benefit it is principally designed. Lovers 
of the romance of fiction, will find here the romance of real life in the de- 
tails of historic facts, as they have occurred in the Christian's career ; the 
contemplation of which, instead of dissipating the mind, and filling the 
memory with nonsense, will contribute to concentrate the view on the folly 
of scepticism, the lofty principles, and the rich consolations of the religion 
of the gospel. 

From the Religious Telegrapli. 

Lights and Shadoivs of Christian Life. By Win. C. Brownlee, NetC- 
York. Published by John S. Taylor, 12mo. pp. 388. 

This is an interesting volmiie, replete with instruction for the young on 
the most important subjects. It contains a series of short and touching 
narratives, eight in number, drawn from real life, presenting a view of tho 
joys and sorrov/s, the lights and shadov/s of Christian life. The first in the 
series is a portrait of " the General, or the utter im1)ecility of modern infi- 
delity ;" the second, " the Duel Prevented." The others, Avhich pourtray 
the blessed influences and triumph;^ of grace, are, " the General's Widow ;" 
" the Atfiicted Mother ;" " the Elder's Son, or the Spoiled Child ;" " Inci- 
dents in the Life and Ministry of the venerable MoncriefF of Kilforgie ;'^the 
First and Last Communion ; and " Hans Van Benschooten." These nar- 
ratives, v/hich contain instruction for readers of every class, are peculiarly 
appropria,te to the young. Were we to estimate them merely as narratives 
on the scale of merit, as well written sketches, we should give them a de- 
cided preference to the numerous works of fiction, whicli are read for re- 
creation, or to indulge a pasoion for thrilling adventure. The volume ia 
beautifully printed, and put up in a style which will commend it to tlie 
good taste of tlic reader. 

From the Troy Whig. 

Lights and Shadoics of Christian Life, by Wm. C. Brownlee, D. D., 
from the Press of John S. Taylor, Publisher, and Theological and Sun- 
day School Bookseller, New-York. This volume contauis a number of in- 
teresting sketches and narratives, drawn, as the author states, from real life. 
It is intended chiefly for the young, and will be read with pleasm'c by those 
who are fond of the serious dressed up in something of the style of an ordi^ 



12 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

nary tale or novel. The author, Dr. Brownlee, is known as a man of talents, 
and a prominent preacher in the city of New- York. For sale in this city by 
Robert Waseon, River-street. 

From the Norwich Courier. 

Lights and Shadows of Christian Life. Designed for the instruction 
of the Young. By Wm. C. Broionlee, D. D. New-York, John S. Tay- 
lor — 12mo. pp. 388. NJ)rwich, sold by Samuel C. Starr. — Some of these 
sketches have appeared before in print, and met the approbation of the pub- 
lic, and are now collected together, revised and enlarged, with the hope of 
doing more extensive good by giving them a wider circulation. The author 
says, " I profess to %vrite for young people. In the place of those light and 
immoral works which the Press inflicts on good taste, and religion and rao 
rals, I am anxious to attempt the substitution of something which may, per- 
haps, captivate the attention of the young ; and by God's grace minister 
some lessons of instruction to the tender mind." This object appears to be 
happily accomplished. The tales, eight in number, are interesting in their 
incidents, well narrated and clothed in an ornate and captivating style : and 
being, as we believe, all founded on fact, they become the more instructive, 
as depicting circumstances in which others may be called to act. The book 
is worthy of the attention of parents and others. 

CHRISTIAN RETIREMENT. From the eighth London 
Edition. $1 25. 

From ihe Religious Telegraph. 

Christian Retirement, or Spiritual Exercises of the Heart. By th» 
Author of Christian Experience, as displayed in the Life and Writings 
of St. Paul. From the eighth London Edition; New-York, Published 
by John S. Taylor, 12mo. pp. 476. — This volume contains thoughts and re- 
flections on a great variety of subjects, connected with the intellectual and 
spiritual growth of the Christian, in pieces of four or five pages in length. 
" The Two Pillars," an article copied from it in our columns last Friday, 
is a lair specimen of the theology and style of the work. In sentiment and 
spirit it is excellent ; its design appears to be such as all good men must 
approve ; and the fact that it has passed through eight editions in London 
is a strong testimonial, recommending it to the Christian public. Judging 
the work from a partial reading, we cheerfully concur in such a commen- 
dation of it. It is a book for the Ciiristian family and closet. The author 
would promote the habit of self-examination and prayer, and lead the reader 
into a closer comnmnion with his own heart and witli God. And he en. 
deavours to promote tliis end, not by the charm and power of novelties — but 
y giving " Ihie upon line" from the treasures of old theology — such as 
guided prophets and apoi^tles and martyis to tlicir heavenly inheritance. 

From the Norwich Courier. 

Christian Retirement ; or Spiritual Exercises of the Heart — from, the 
eighth London edition. New-York, John S. Taylor, 12 mo. pp. 476. This 
is one of those admirable volumes, which, disdaining to enter into sectarian 
controversy, aims to make us better christians by making us lx?tter acquainted 
with the Bible and our own hearts. The object of the writer is thus briefly 
noticed in the Preface : " The simple design in publishing the following re- 



,'^' 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 13 

flections is to induce a habit of self-examination and prayer ; and to excite 
to a more diligent perusal of the Word of God." This design is steadily 
and faithfully kept in view, and the fact that the volume has passed through 
eight editions in England is no mean testimony of its merits. If read with 
the right disposition of mind, it cannot be perused without some profit. It 
can be procured at Mr. Starr's Book-store. 

From the Methodist Protestant. 

Christian Retirement ; or Spiritual Exercises of the Heart. This vol- 
?ime consists of meditations and reflections upon evangelical subjects, and is 
a valuable companion for tiio Cliristian in his devotional retirement ; as it is 
calculated to exalt the mind — elevate Uk; feelings, — excite to self-examina- 
tion, — engage the soul in devout and holy thought, and increase a sense 
of the value and importance of divine truth. The perusal of such a volume 
in the closet is highly advantageous, as it calls off the attention from the 
cares and tumults of life, and concentrates the thoughts upon God and 
heavenly things. This book, we think, is admirably adapted for this pur- 
pose, on account of the practical nature of the subjects ; the experunental 
manner in which thej^ are oresented, and the deep-toned piety which breathes 
in every page- 

THE SPIRIT OFHOLINESS— By James Harrington Evans, 

A. M.— John S. Taylor, New-York. 

From the Brooklyn Advocate. 

The Spirit of Holiness is the spirit and essence of genuine and opera- 
ting piety. The Christian Pilgrim, if he would be true to the gerat 
calling of grace, needs ever to pray for and cultivate in his heart, that 
spirit of holiness which was so conspicuous in the Divine Master, and 
fonns the great feature of resemblance between God and those whom He has 
sanctified ; and it is to be regretted that in the world, and even among pro- 
fessing Christians, this spirit is so seldom witnessed. Men who belong to the 
communion of Clirist, are often guilty of practices which although not strictly 
immoral, savor but little of holiness. There are ten thousand acts of unchris- 
tianlike conduct, of which no code of laws can take cognizance, but which 
are advei"se to all the sacred feelings of the soul, and directly opposed to the 
spirit of holiness. Against these the author has taken up his pen ; and after 
adverting to the creation, nature, and operation of the spirit of holiness, he 
dwells forcibly and aptly upon the manifold circumstances and passions which 
war against its existence. Mr. Evans, the author, is evidently a man of 
talent and good sense, and treats his subject in a proper and skilful manner. 
This being the first American edition, it has prefixed to it an introductory 
preface by the Rev. Mr. Winslow, of the second Baptist Church of this city. 
The book is printed hi the excellent style, usually observable in Mr. Taylor's 
publications. 

THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND EAR- 
LY PIETY. By Rev. Wm. S. Plumer. 31 cents. 

From the Morning Star. 

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early Piety, by Rev. William 
S. Plumer, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Richmond ; New- 

2 



14 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

York, John S. Taylor, Publisher, Brick Church Chapel, corner of Park 
Row and Nassau-street, opposite the City Hall. 

This is the title of a small, thougli neat and highly interesting work of 
113 pages, recently given to tlie public. It is a work on a most important 
subject, written in a clear, chaste and classical style, abounding with beau- 
ties of an elevated order, with arguments of no ordinary force, and with in. 
struction and counsel, tJiat render it a compendium of wisdom of opinion, 
associated with purity of thought and sentiment, evidently proceeding from 
and calculated to inculcate piety of principle and holiness of heart and life. 
It is one of tlie best and ablest advisory assistants, in the important duty of 
rightly and religiously educating children, that has ever been presented be- 
fore our eyes. All of it is interesting, much pathetically and subhmely 
eloquent. Its sterUng merits entitle it to a general penisal, and the pre- 
cepts and examples it presents, claun for it universal acceptation and adop- 
tion, in educating the rising generation. 

From the Christian Intelligencer. 

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early Piety, by Rev. William 
S. Plumcr, Pastor of tlie first Presbyterian Church, Riclunond, Virginia. 
New- York, John S. Taylor, 113 pp. 18mo. This neat little volume is on a 
subject of the first importance, and although it has frequently been treated, 
yet it well demands " line upon line, and precept upon precept," The nam<3 
of the author will attract attoiition to it. Tae striking and pungent manner 
which characterises him, and his aptness at illustration will be found in the 
little work. It is divided into eight sections or chapters, and will prove in- 
etructive and interesting both to parents and children. It may be ranked 
among the little volumes which deserve to be found in the family, and to be 
put into the hands of children cither as presents, or from the Sunday School 
Library. 

From the Methodist Protestant. 

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early Piety., by Rev. W. S. 
Plumer. The object of this little volume is one of the greatest importance ; 
and those who take a proper view of it, v/ill be glad to receive any judicious 
suggestions upon the religious education of children. Many will be found in 
this little production, that are very important to be observed, in improving 
the mind, and forming the character of the young ; so as to bring them hi early 
life, under the dominion of the religion of the Bible. The whole subject is 
discussed, and presented to the mind, in these " Thoughts," in a very judi- 
cious and impressive manner, as might be expected from the character of the 
author, who is extensively known as an able, and acalous minister of Clirist. 

From the American Traveller. 

Plumer^s Thoughts. — A very excellent little treatise is that of the Rev. 
Mr. Plumer, on Religious Education, published in a handsome manner by 
Mr. J. S. Taylor, Now- York. It discusses in plain and convincuig language, 
the importance of early instilling into tlie minds of the generation that is to 
succeed us, the first principles of tliat substantial knowledge which will 
enable them to direct wisely the chariot of church and state. The chapters 
are brief and the pages unencumbered with irrelevant matter ; the youth or 
the parent cannot misunderstand the design of the author, and he must be an 
indifferent reader indeed who would net derive information and encourage, 
ment from its pcnisal. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 16 

From the Religious Telegraph. 

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early Piety, by Rev. WiDiam S. 
Plumer, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Va. New- 
York, PubHshedby John S. Taylor, 18mo. p. 113. 

Since mentioning this volume two weeks since, we Iiave had the opportu- 
nity of examining it. It contains many excellent thoughts on a subject, 
which, though often discussed, is not generally appreciated. The reader 
will find in it valuable suggestions on the following topics : Importance of 
the subject of Education ; Education, what it is; Religious Education; 
Rules for it ; Early Piety possible ; Motives to Fidelity in Religious Instruc- 
tion, and Cases of Early Piety. Wc would conunend the work to all pa- 
rents as an assistant in the most important work (next to their own salvation) 
which God has assigned them. 

From the Essex North Register. 

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early Piety, by Rev. William 
S. Plumer. N. Y. John S. Taylor, 1836. 

The above is the title of a little work very hap})ily written, and destined 
to do much good, we think, to those who are the Educators of the young. 
In these days, when there is so much need o? family influence to counteract 
the wildnesscs of the times, this book aj)i)ears very opportunely, and we hope 
will be read by all young parents. It contains the minute detail upon family 
discipline and religious instruction, which in the course of their experience, 
they often find themselves in want of. 

From the Baptist Reconl. 

Thoughts on Religious Education and Early Piety, by Rev. William S. 
Plumer, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Va. New- 
York : John S. Taylor, Theological and Sunday School Bookseller, Brick 
Church Chapel, corner of Park Row and Nassau-street. ISmo. pp. 113. 

This excellent little work contains ciglit sections on the following topics : 
Importance of the subject of Education ; What it is ; Religious Education ; 
Early Piety possible ; Motives to Fidelity in Religious Instruction ; Cases 
of Early Piety ; Conclusion, 

This work is written in a spirited manner. It contains many excellent 
rules for the moral and religious training of children, and these principles of 
religious education are aptly illustrat(^d by several striking instances of early 
piety. On these accounts, the work will be useful and interesting to parents 
and children. We wish it an introduction to families and Sabbath Schools. 

AN EARNEST APPEAL TO CHRISTIANS, ON THE 
DUTY OF MAKING EFFORTS AND SACRIFICES 
FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. By 
Wrn. C. Brownlec, I). D. 31 cents. 

From the American Baptist. 

An Earnest Appeal to Christians on the Duty of Making Efforts and 
Sacrifices for the Conversion of the World. By W. C. Brownlec, D. D., 
of the Middle and North Dutch Churelics, N. Y. New-York: John S. 
Taylor, Brick Church Chapel, corner of Park Row and Nassau-street. 18mo. 
pp. 157. 

This work is in three parts. The first presents a view of tlic work to be 



16 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

accomplished, viz : The Conversion of the World, as predestined, predict- 
ed, and certain to be effected by the influence of the Holy Spirit. The second 
treats of the means by which this work is to be accomplished, in twelve 
chapters, in which are considered — the spirit which should influence us, 
prayerful, zealous, and active ; facts relating to the condition of the heathen, 
the worth of their souls, instances of missionary success, facilities afforded by 
Sunday schools, Bible classes, infant schools, &.c. ; female influence, and the 
contrast of the condition of woman in Christian and heathen countries ; the 
Bible, the grand Instrument, with tracts in foreign tongues ; the spirit and man. 
Tier oi Moravian missionaries toha copied ; evangelical revivals to be cherish- 
ed, and religious young men educated ; need of wisdom, as well as zeal and 
funds ; popular ignorance and a perverted public opinion must be cured by 
the labors of discreet agents ; difficulties in the way, from rich men and 
poor men, and sometimes in the church ; the coimnand of God to publish 
the gospel to all men universally obligatory, we must send or be sent ; and 
property is entrusted to us for this purpose, and not to lavish on oiu"selves or 
children ; the necessary sacrifices are not really great ; all might be saved 
from intemperance and other needless expenses ; the expansive power of 
benevolence will open new and rich resources, and there is a dire curse on 
the possession of wealth unsanctified by benevolence ; the importance of 
immediate action, and the loss and folly of postponing charitable efforts. 

The third part urges the motives which influence all to enter on this 
great and good work, drawn from the deplorable condition of pagans, from 
the compassion of Christ, and the retributions of eternity. 

Such is an analysis of this work. It is written in the author's manner, 
rather pungent and impressive than accurate and elaborate. And though 
dedicated to the Reformed Dutch Church, and intended to awaken a mis- 
sionary spirit among a people who have but recently engaged spiritedly in 
the good work of foreign missions, its general circulation would diffuse some 
valuable information among many, and awaken zeal in all the friends of this 
evangelical enterprise. 

From the Morning Star. 

An Earnest Appeal to Christians, on the duty of making Efforts and 
Sacrifices for the Conversion of the World, by W. C. Brownlee, D. D., of 
the Middle and North Dutch Churches, N. Y., published by John S. Tay- 
lor, Brick Church Chapel, corner of Park Row and Nassau street, New- 
York. 

This is the title of an interesting little work of 157 pages addressed to 
Christians of all denominations, urging them to unite their prayers, their ex- 
ertions, and their wealth for the dissemination of the truths of the Gospel, 
by means of teaching and preaching, and the circulation of the Sacred 
Scriptures throughout tlie whole world, for its conversion. The writer enters 
on his task with his accustomed zeal and abiUty, exhibits in a comprehensive 
view the magnitude and immense importance of the undertaking, states and 
proves that it is to and will be accomplished, and through the instnmientality 
of means ; shows the duty of Christians, in this matter, and presents them 
with the most powerful motives for undertaking, carrying on and constun- 
mating the work. This volume will be read with interest by all who sin. 
cerely desire the spread of the gospel, and the conversion of the world, now 
•♦ lying in wickechiess," to the religion of the ♦• Prince of Peace,** and the 
glorious hope of a happy inmiortality. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 17 

THOUGHTS ON EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. By 
Rev. S. H. Skinner, D. D. 37 cents. 

From the Weekly Messenger. 

Thoughts on Evangelizing the World, by Thomas H. Skinner, pp. 98, 
published by John S. Taylor, Park Row. The great subject of this dis- 
course, is one v/hich should occupy the attention of every Christian. The 
scriptures -speak with confidence on the universal spread of the Gospel, and, 
from a consideration of its various promises and predictions, we arc led to 
expect the overthrow of the Satanic empire, in the complete subjugation of 
the world to the authority of Christ. Success in this respect depends greatly 
upon the character and conduct of professing Christians ; spiritual prosperity 
among the people of God ; — faithfulness in the performance of every duty, 
is almost necessarily attended by an outpouring of the Spirit of God, and 
the conversion of sinners : but in the absence of tliis, when the professors 
of religion arc cold and indifferent, we seldom hear of reformations among 
ungodly men. It is quite evident that God will bless the world through the 
church ; the liglit of truth will shine through her, and chase away the gloom 
and darkness of benighted humanity. Tlic Psalmist says, " Out of Zion, 
the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." So it has been and so it will 
be. The text chosen by Dr. Skinner, at the opening of the Mercer street 
Presbyterian Church, is exactly to the same point ; the cliurch must be en- 
lightened and revived in order to the diffusion of saving knowledge. " God 
be merciful unto us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us : Sc- 
lah 1 Tiiat thy way may be known upon earth ; thy saving health among 
all nations." The sublime sentiments, so beautifully expressed in this ad- 
mirable discom-se, should be in the hands of all who lovo our Lord Jesus 
Christ. The chief point insisted on is Christian unity, and who does not 
know that v»'ithout it little good can be done ? The world will not believe 
in the divine mission and saving character of Christ, unless Christians, pro- 
fessedly so, are one in Christ, O-nd one among themselves. Sectarian notions 
and movements are an insuperable barrier to the spread of truth. This is 
.'ihown most clearly in the discourse before us, and our author aims at 
their overthrow in the following plan of the discourse, which is well sustained 
and carried out. 

" Taking, then, for granted that to evangelize the world is the great ob- 
ject of pursuit to all Christians, I advance and sliall endeavour to maintain 
the following, as trinciples by which their efforts in prosecuting this ob- 
ject should be regulated — namely : 

That they should seek to propagate substantial Christianity, rather than 
any sectarian form of it. 

That they should lay their plans of evangelism, so as to admit the coali- 
tion of all Christians. 

That they should so conduct their proceedings as to evade as far as pos- 
sible opposition from the world : 

Tliat nevertheless the utmost zeal and resolution are indispensable to car- 
rying the work forward ; But, after all, 

That they should depend for success, not on their own exertions, however 
unexceptionable ; but on the co-operation of the Divine Power." 

We advise Cliristians of every denomination to purchase, and in the spirit 
of prayer, read, this most excellent discourse. We think it is adapted to 
maintain unity and peace among all smccre lovers of practical Cliris. 
tianity. 

2* 



18 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

The book is beautifully printed on good paper, and the binding is supeib. 
In the centre of the cover, is impressed in splendid gold letters, the all- 
comprehensive prayer " Thy Kingdom come." 

POPERY AN ENEMY TO LIBERTY. By Wm. C. Brown- 
lee, D. D. 31 cents. 

PLEASURE AND PROFIT, Vol. 1, or The Museum. By 

Uncle Arthur. 37^ cents. 

PLEASURE AND PROFIT, Vol. 2, or The Boy's Friend. 
By Uncle Arthur. 375 cents. 

PLEASURE AND PROFIT, Vol. 3, or Mary and Flo- 
rence. By Uncle Arthur. 37^ cents. 

MISSIONARY REMAINS, or Sketches of Evarts, Cor. 
NELius, AND WisNER. By Gardiner Spring, D. D., and 
others. 37^ cents. 

THE CHRISTIAN'S POCKET COMPANION. Selected 
from the works of John Rogers, Dr. Owen, David Brain- 
ERD, President Edwards, and others, with an Introduction 
by Rev. John Blatchford, of Bridgeport, Conn. 25 cents. 

From the New-York Observer. 

Christian's Pocket Companion. This very small but neat manual, just 
published, is a compilation of some of the purest sentiments and holiest as. 
pirations of such men as Owen, Rogers, Brainerd, and President Edwards. 
We venture to say that no Cliristian can make it the familiar companion of 
his heart, as well as " pocket," without becoming evidently a holier and a 
happier man. 

THE CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. By the 
Rev. David Nelson, of Quincy, Illinois ; late of Marion 
County, Missouri. New-York. John S. Taylor, 1837. 

Frrwn the Journal of Commerce. 

A book with the above title page, has just been published by Mr. John S. 
Taylor. When it was announced as being in the press, the thought was 
suggested, whether there was not already an abundance of treatises on the 
subject of mfidelity ; and whether the feebleness of argument, which cha- 
racterize some, and the cold, abstruse speculation which chills and mystifies 
others, were not adapted rather to beget scepticism than to remove it. But 
a perusal of this book has convinced us, that at least one treatise v/as want- 
ing, which in simplicity, cogency, du-ectness, and clear illustration, should 
be answerable to the practice and business-like habits of the present genera- 
tion. Dr. Nelson's work has all these characteristics, and is therefore pre- 
eminently suited to make a deep impression upon the commm^.ity. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 19 

Our author was once himself a sceptic, thoroughly versed in all sceptical 
writings, from the unpious witticisms of Voltaire, down to the miserable 
slang of Tom Paine. His acquaintance with men, in all parts of our coun- 
try, is uncommonly extensive ; and he has met practical infidelity as a friend 
and a foe, in almost every variety of form. He comes before the public, 
therefore, as a physician intimately acquainted with the disease which he 
professes to cure. None can read the book and not feel that the writer is 
perfectly master of his subject. For strength of argument, point, simplici- 
ty, and felicitous illustration, drawn from a storehouse of facts, the book is 
equal to any we ever read. It is a common sense book, which we hope will 
fiiid its way into every family in our land. Sincerely do we hope it will be 
read by all who are infected with the disease of infidelity, and work, with 
the blessing of God, a speedy cure. The external execution of the book is 
good, it being printed on excellent paper and handsomely bound. 

Prom the Commercial Advertiser. 

The Cause and Cure of Infidelity, with an account of the author^s con- 
version. By the Rev. David Nelson. New-York. John S. Taylor, 1837. 

This is no common-place, or ordinary book : but is an original, experi- 
mental and practical work, adapted to the existing aspects of scepticism in 
our country, and cannot fail to be useful to all who read it. The author, 
now an aged and venerable minister of the gospel, was long an infidel, a dis- 
ciple of rationalism, a confirmed sceptic. He writes, therefore, from expe- 
rience of infidelity, its causes and its cure ; and as the spirit and style of the 
volume are mild and conciliatory, while at the same time he deplores error 
and vindicates truth with sufficient point and force, we see not how sceptics, 
who are honest, can excuse themselves from reading this book of reasons for 
renouncing scepticism and vain pliilosophy, by one who now labors to build 
up that which he once sought to destroy. We commend this book of reasons 
for believing in the Bible, written by an Infidel, to all " free inquirers" who 
are honest, and such will, at least, be convinced that the author is sincere ; 
and more, that the extraordinary revolution of his opinions, which he here 
records, was yielded with a sufficiency of resistance, and not until every 
weapon of rationalism had been wielded and vanquished by the majesty of 
truth. The distribution of this volume among sceptics of every class, would 
do more to convert them from the error of their ways than can be hoped for 
from public or private disputations, or even from those strictly controversial 
works which are ever issuing from the press. The author and publisher have 
performed a real service to the community by this timely publication. 

SERMONS. By Rev. Charles G. Finney. With a Portrait. 

$1 00. 

The sermons are twelve in number, on the following subjects : 

1. Sinners bound to change their own hearts. 

2. How to change your heart. 

3. Traditions of the ciders. 

4. 5. Total depravity. 

6. Why sinners hate God. 

7. God cannot please sinners. 

8. Cliristian Affinity. 

9. Stewardship. 



20 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

1 0. Doctrine of Election. 

11. Reprobation. 

12. Love of the World. 

It will be seen, from a glance at the subjects, that this volume contains 
Mr. Finney's mode of elucidating several highly important points of doc- 
trine and duty, and will be read with interest and profit every where, pp. 
277. 8vo. Price f 1. 

From the Morning Star. 

Sermons on Important Subjects, by Rev. C. G. Finney. Third edition, 
pp. 277, large octavo. 

This volume comprises twelve sermons, on highly important practical 
subjects, which ought to address themselves to the serious consideration of 
every man, woman, and child of Adam. These sermons were, we believe, 
principally delivered in the Chatham-street Chapel, and set fortli, in a clear, 
forcible and convincing manner, the reverend author's views of the Gospel, 
truths of which he treats. The style is plain and sententious, though 
wrought with much originality, and characterized by the boldness, energy, 
and persuasiveness of its author. 

The reasoning is sound, and the deductions logical and clear. Man is 
here depicted as he is, in all the attributes of his character, and he is shown 
more of himself than in most instances he ever knew before. The doctrines 
we consider as altogether purely evangelical, entirely compatible with those 
of divine revelation, and susceptible of demonstration by reference to its 
sacred pages. This author has been much abused by those who either did 
not fully understand the import and tendency of his language and doctrines, 
or by those who perhaps had formed preconceptions of a character in hos- 
tility to the opinions and doctrines he advances ; or by others again who did 
not wish to believe the important truths he uttered, lest they should be re- 
proved. We have not only heard but read his sermons, and however much 
we charitably differ from others, consider these sennons as valuable auxil. 
iaries in the schools of Christian instruction. Their approval by the Chris- 
tian public is evident from the issue of this third edition. 

From the Long-Island Star. 

Seryjions on Important Subjects, by the Rev. C. G. Finney — New. York 
— John S. Taylor. Many of the themes of this volume are upon debateable 
ground, and we are therefore, by the character of our paper, precluded from 
speaking affirmatively or negatively about the correctness of the views 
therein inculcated. There are some, however, of a more general and prac- 
tical character, which, from the force of argument and the vigor of imagina- 
tion in which they are clothed, appeal most powerfully to the common mind. 
However diversified the opinions respecting Mr. Finney's mere theological 
merits, all must unite in awarding him talents of a very high order. This 
volume well sustains his pretensions as a man of commanding abilities. We 
would say, en passant, that the works issued by John S. Taylor are invari. 
ably executed in a very superior style of type, paper, and binding ; and in 
this he deserves the thanks of those readers who have a taste to gratify, or 
eyes to preserve. 

PREVAILING PRAYER. By Rev. C. G. Finney. 32.mo. 
12i cents. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 21 

SINNERS BOUND TO CHANGE THEIR OWN HEARTS. 
A Sermon, by C. G. Finney. For five dollars a hundred, or 
six cents single. 

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR HEART. A Sermon, by C. 
G. Finney. For five dollars a hundred, or six cents single. 

THE WORKS OF REV. DANIEL A. CLARK. In three 

volumes. $3 00. 

ADVICE TO A BROTHER. By a Missionary. 31 cents. 

EARLY PIETY. By Rev. Jacob Abbott. 18| cents. 

SCRIPTURE GEMS. Morocco, gilt. 25 cents. 

THE NATIONAL PREACHER, printed in an elegant pam. 
phlet form, each number containing two Sermons from living 
Ministers. Monthly. Edited by Rev. Austin Dickinson. 
Price one dollar a year in advance. 

THE SABBATH SCHOOL VISITER, published by the 
Massachusetts Sabbath School Society. Edited by Rev. 
Asa Bullard, Boston. 50 cents. 

Also Agent for 
THE MISSIONARY HERALD, published for the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Monthly, 
$1 50 a year. 

Also Publisher of 
THE NAVAL MAGAZINE. Edited by the Rev. C. S. 
Stewart, M. A., of the U. S. Navy. $3 00 a year, payable 
in advance. 

WILD FLOWERS. By a Lady. 1 vol. r2mo. 

SERMONS. By Rev. William Nevins. D. D. 1 volume, 

12mo. 
PRACTICAL RELIGION. By Rev. John Woodbridge, D. 

D. 12mo. 

TEMPERANCE TALES. By Mr. Sargeant, of Boston. In 
2 vols. 18mo. 

NARRATIVE OF CHARLES BALL. 1 vol. 12mo. 



22 ADVERTISEMENTS. 

From the Journal of Public Morals. 

Narrative of Charles Ball. — This is a history of the exertions of a slave 
to obtain his freedom, and is a very impressive exhibition of the influence of 
slavery on the moral character both of the slave and his master. It is written 
in a charming style, and is calculated deeply to interest all classes. It resembles 
the story 6f Robinson Crusoe, in the nature of the interest awakened, and would 
seem utterly incredible to any one, who was not able to conceive the strength 
of the love of liberty as it burns in the heart of man. Lst a man reading 
this book conceive himself in the same circumstances with Charles Ball, and 
it will vastly destroy his incredulity. It is natural to suppose, that Charles, 
in relating his adventures, would give them in a glowing style, and it is evi- 
dent, that while the Editor declares, that in all statements relative to the 
slave himself, he faithfully adheres to the facts as stated by him, he has, 
nevertheless, exerted a very high degree of skill, in the introduction of such 
illustrations as the varied scenery of the southern and middle states would 
be likely to furnish. The writer does not enter into the present discussion 
respecting Emancipation, but he has certainly furnished us with a volmne, 
which is adapted to give much instruction, combined with a high degree of 
intellectual enjoyment. We advise all those who wish to have a rich feast 
of harmless and profitable curiosity, to purchase and read the adventures of 
Charles Ball. N. E. I. 

From the American Citizen. 

Slavery in the United States : — A Narrative of the Life and Adven- 
tures of Charles Ball, a Black Man. New- York, J. S. Taylor, Brick 
Church Chapel, 1837. 

The feeling existing in the community in relation to the institution of do- 
mestic slavery in the United States, will not be lessened by a perusal of this 
volume, written as it is in a style peculiarly attractive. The Narrative is of 
deep, and occasionally harrowing interest, and some of the incidents, for the 
sake of humanity it were to be wished, had no foundation in reality, but there 
are such strong evidences of their truth, that we can only lament over the 
absence of that blessed principle in the hearts of many of our fellow beings, 
which would lead them to do to others as they would that men should do to 
them. The book is put forth with the avowed object of making the citizens 
of the United States better acquainted with each other, and it is to be sin- 
cerely hoped that it may be instrumental in accomplishing so desirable an 
end. 

From the Human Rights. 

Charles Ball. — Mr. John S. Taylor, of this city, has just published a nevr 
and beautiful edition of the authentic " Narrative of Charles Ball," a book 
that is destined to be as famous as Robinson Crusoe and far more useful. 
We know of one esteemed clergyman who has recommended it from the 
pulpit, and means to do so again. 

From the N. T. Evangelist. 

Slavery in the United States : — A Narrative of the Life and Adveiu 
tures of Charles Ball, a Black Man. New- York, John S. Taylor, Brick 
Church Chapel. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 23 

In the preface to this book it is stated, that the narrative is taken from the 
mouth of the adventurer himself, and althougli the copy does not retain the 
identical words of the original, the sense and import are faithfully preserved. 
Tlie book as we understand has previously appeared in the numbers of the 
Cabinet of Freedom, and has passed under the supervision of the Hon. Wm. 
Jay. It is one of the most interesting narratives which has ever come from 
our press. Ball was a slave who lived forty years in Maryland, South Ca- 
rolina, and Georgia, under various masters. A very candid spirit is mani- 
fested in the praise which he bestows upon some of the southern planters ; 
but the horrors of slavery never have stood out in such bold relief as in the 
smiplc detail of manners and things as they really exist on a great plan- 
tation. There is hardly any thing in the book of a denunciatory spirit — it 
is the vividness with which the cotton fields, the rice swamps, the scanty 
allowance of food, the instrmnents of torture, the abject and hopeless con- 
dition of beings, who bear the image of their Creator, are presented, which 
makes one rise from the perusal of this book, with a mind sickening at the 
deep wrongs of the poor slave. 

The book contains 517 pages duodecimo : it is well executed, printed on 
good paper, and handsomely bound. It cannot but have an extensive circu- 
lation, and will do much towards enlightening the public mind on a subject 
which can never be fully understood, unless by a detail, such as the one be- 
fore us. 

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. By Rev. John Wesley. 
18mo. 

Fi'om the American Citizen. 

A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, by John Wesley, from 1725 
to 1777, with his own Notes. From the London Edition of 1837. New- 
York, John S. Taylor, Brick Church Chapel, Publisher. 

The subject of this book is a disputed one, and even the mind of the au- 
thor, as appears by the notes, underwent material change on some points in 
the course of his life. However, the volume can hardly be read without 
both pleasure and profit. Mr. Wesley's faith and zeal were looked upon as 
rather uncommon in his time, for the latter of which he had bestowed upon 
him some pretty harsh cpitliets ; and it may be, that his faith was strength- 
ened, and his zeal quickened, by his belief that perfection might, and ought 
to be attained by the Christian in this life. 

The book is a small 12mo. neatly executed. 

THE INFANT. A Poem, in four Books. By Rev. John 
Mines. 1 vol. 12mo. 

PRIVATE MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS OF B.SHOP 
WILSON. 1 vol. 18mo. 

Also— TRAVELS IN GERMANY, PRUSSIA, AND SWIT- 
ZERLAND. By Henry Iliestand. Including some ac- 
count of his early life, conversion, and ministerial labours in 
the United States, 1 vol. l*2mo. 



S4 ADVERTISEMENTS. M 

FINNEY'S PRACTICAL LECTURES TO CHRISTIANS. 

1 vol. 12mo. 

J. S. T. has also a large and choice selection of MiscelL 
neous Works, suitable for Sunday School Libraries ; together 
with Theological, Classical, Moral, and Religious Books, Sta- 
tionary, dec, all of which he will sell at the lowest price. 

A constant supply of the Publications of the Massachusetts 
Sabbath School Society^ the American Sunday School Union, an ^ 
of the Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union, at the sam 
price as sold at their respective Depositories. 

Oh^ Orders from the country will be immediately attended 
to, and books forwarded according to directions. Should the 
selection of books for Sunday Schools be left with J. S. T., and 
he should forward any which would not suit the purchaser, they 
may be returned, and the money will be refunded, or other books 
given in exchange. Those wishing to purchase, are invited to 
call and examine his stock. 



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